TVGuide a go go… and a new network arises

A good article from the NYTimes about the crumbling franchise TV Guide, trying to keep up with TV and its myriad audiences.

In a presentation to Gemstar’s biggest investors, the company identified a quandary for TV Guide, 95 percent of whose circulation is by subscription: a large portion of the subscribers are “traditionalist,” “older, 65-plus” and “more analog,” compared with those who are listed as younger and “digital.” Mr. Loughlin did not say what percentage was in the “older” category, but he conceded that TV Guide’s subscribers were unlikely to impress the advertisers in a more upscale publication like, say, Vanity Fair. “It’s a mass book,” he said of TV Guide. “It isn’t Traditional Home.”

In its 2004 annual report, Gemstar acknowledged a “substantial decline” in program advertising – the ads for particular movies and shows in the listings. It added that the decline of these ads, the core of TV Guide’s ad revenue, “could be permanent.”

I always admire the courage of Times reporters who dig into corporate publishing maladies that are so darn close to home for their own livelyhoods.

Meanwhile, blogger Michael Prieve spun the dial today and built a neat network of TV blogs. If you want to support their new network, drop this link in your HTML:

<a href=http://www.blogads.com/advertise/tvblogs_ad_network/order>Advertise on TV weblogs</a>

Here’s the great logo Michael concocted: