What they buy, not what they read?

Here's a thought-provoking idea for traditional magazine publishers:

In the traditional publishing business, the mission is to deliver compelling content that holds and cradles the attention of their reader. However, this publishing goal is now counterproductive because advertisers will continue to reward publishers not on their ability to hold their readers attention, but rather on the rate in which they can transfer this attention so it can be further evaluated on how well it converts to customers.

From a longer article by Ari Rosenberg in the Friday, Apr 8, 2005, Media Post