No market sector is changing more rapidly than the world of print media. It is hard to believe that the blockbuster romantic comedy, “You’ve Got Mail!” was made in 1998. Played out against the backdrop the commercial rivalry between big, bad “Fox Books” and “The Shop Around the Corner,” this remake of Judy Garland’s earlier film is shot through with the angst of New Yorker’s who fret over the demise of the local book dealer. Scarcely a decade later, we are now facing the demise of “Fox Books” and, for that matter, books themselves (at least as we have known them).
In response, the editors of Fine Cooking have managed to preserve a very traditional enterprise by innovating. Although they continue to produce one of the country’s most popular cooking magazines, they have also turned to the web. There, taking a thoroughly new approach,
• they work to be accessible
• they take into account the experience level of their readers
• they take a user-oriented approach
• and they focus on their market’s interests
Not surprisingly, the first tabs one sees in visiting finecooking.com are the tabs labeled “recipes, ingredients, how-to, and cooks talk.” In the run-up to the Super Bowl the site offers desperate entertainers a “Super Bowl Party Menu” and, of course, the key to their success, the tag line “We bring out the cook in you.”
The rave reviews that the magazine receives are hardly surprising. One fan writes:
Fine Cooking is the best! I have found that this magazine offers such a great balance of recipes… not too easy, not extremely hard. Just an ideal mix of some quick and easy everyday meals and bigger dishes that require more preparation. I like that the editors of Fine Cooking have mastered this balance because it is perfect for people like me who don’t settle for one or the other. I can’t afford to spend all of my spare time cooking, BUT I love cooking meals and entertaining as if I’m a “Fine” cook! I have used countless recipes given to me by my issues of Fine Cooking and have always been more than satisfied by the way they come out– simply delicious. Issues offer such useful cooking tips and strategies that just make cooking easier. I also find the reviews of kitchen appliances useful and the tips on cookware and the best ingredients to use. I love this magazine! 5 stars!
In an important way, the challenge confronting Saab, Fine Cooking, AND theological educators is the same. They are not operating in fast-changing, competitive markets. They are operating in environments that are disappearing and morphing into something completely different.
Marketing guru Seth Godin’s is right:
“Who will save us?
Who will save book publishing?
What will save the newspapers?
What means ‘save’?
If by save you mean, “what will keep things just as they are?” then the answer is nothing will. It’s over.
If by save you mean, “who will keep the jobs of the pressmen and the delivery guys and the squadrons of accountants and box makers and transshippers and bookstore buyers and assistant editors and coffee boys,” then the answer is still nothing will. Not the Kindle, not the iPad, not an act of Congress.
We need to get past this idea of saving, because the status quo is leaving the building, and quickly. Not just in print of course, but in your industry too.
If you want to know who will save the joy of reading something funny, or the leverage of acting on fresh news or the importance of allowing yourself to be changed by something in a book, then don’t worry. It doesn’t need saving. In fact, this is the moment when we can figure out how to increase those benefits by a factor of ten, precisely because we don’t have to spend a lot of resources on the saving part.
Every revolution destroys the average middle first and most savagely.”
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/02/who-will-save-us.html
Fine Cooking appears to have understood this, intuitively, if not explicitly.
• Its management embraced the new tech and used it well.
• They accepted that the market does not come to them as well prepared as it used to be.
• And they are learning to build a presence as an important and one of the best on-line resources for cooks.
Saab (and with it, GM) kept trying to make the old model work (literally) and the old model is gone. As Godin notes, “’what will keep things just as they are?’…the answer is nothing will. It’s over.”
The same can be said of the existing model of theological education.
Tomorrow and the next day I plan to outline the fast-changing environment that theological educators face —
FYI–From msnbc website
Dead car brands
Updated 3:13 p.m. ET, Mon., Feb. 1, 2010
GM signed a deal last week to sell its Saab brand to small Dutch automaker Spyker Cars NV for $74 million in cash plus $326 million worth of preferred shares in Saab. It hinges on a $550 million loan from the European Investment Bank.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35184656
As can be seen in theological education. some seminaries have also been sold off (e.g., SWTS and EDS).
Innovation is important in any business or institution if it is to survive and thrive in the 21st century. Still, as a former member of the Alumni Council of my seminary, I mourn that the focus on formation of future priests seems to have taken a back seat to getting more paying customers in the classrooms (i.e., students who are M.A.s and those seeking advanced Christian education.
One way, I propose, is for the Church could do more to attract more people into pursuing the priesthood/diaconate. Which means revisioning what the roles, compensation, and vocational opportunities are for clergy in the near and distant future.
My pastors/friends are reading books called:
Pagan Christianity
Re-imagining Church
George Barna and a theologian collaborate on them.
They may contribute greatly to your discussions.