Content and programming will make the difference for magazines, say investors

Magazines are still a good investment, according to a report in Folio: about the 8th annual DeSilva and Phillips dealmaker's summit, held in New York. Some of what was said:

“We would not invest in newspapers. With magazines, maybe. It depends on the market. Newspapers have a fundamental issue where they don’t deliver as much value as their alternatives. With magazines, that fundamental issue doesn’t exist as long as they’re targeted to an attractive niche market.” Content that can’t be had elsewhere—either through original reporting or unique ways of aggregating— [is an] attractive investment, he said.

“We believe in content but we’re struggling to monetize it. It’s not really an issue for the next five years but it could be a problem five years from now when we try to sell the business and project what it will be worth to a buyer.” -- Jeff Horing, managing director of Insight Venture Partners.

“I think it’s hard to make [paywalls]work.In our experience, you can charge a lot of money for specialized information for an audience with a need for it—it doesn’t have to be business and finance. But for more general interest, the value just isn’t there.” -- Norman Pearlstine, chief content officer of Bloomberg.

“Right now, the Internet is still so immature that everything is driven by the product. But ultimately, users don’t want to be their own programmers. People are still going to the same three or four sites every day.” -- Tyler Goldman, CEO of BuzzMedia.