Let me count the ways

How many ways can a printed "magazine" be personalized?

A major, regional supermarket company, is sending out 160,000 coupon books that are each different, personalized to the recipients buying habits.

AARP, the country's largest circulation magazine at 22.5 million, has 350 versions every month.

A national glossy newsmagazine last year asked readers to choose four of six categories of stories and then printed personalized compilation magazines for the 30,000 volunteers, with each participant's name in the ads of the sponsor of the initiative, Lexus. In other words the ads said something like:" __(personalized) name_____, you would like good in a new Lexus SUV" or something like that.

WIRED magazine printed an edition years ago with a picture of the recipient's house on the cover.

There are many other company's preparing sectionalized and personalized versions. And with variable data printing, software is not the limitation. Database understanding of readership and sales bandwidth are the issues.

Obviously, American Express and MasterCard and other billing companies -- the utilities, for instance -- have been printing and mailing personalized statements for 10 years.

It's already happening

Last year, Time Magazine created MINE, a magazine that a reader went online and answered questions and then received a printed magazine tailored to his or her answers, with advertising targeted for him or her, with his or her name embedded. about 30,000 people participated.
This year, Graphic Arts Monthly offered readers six choices of covers and then printed and delivered the choices.
Wired Magazine came with your house on the cover.
In Denver in 2010, the Western Fantasy 60-page "magazine" event program was printed variably so that each attendee at the most expensive sponsored talbles at the event had a letter of thanks personally from the event chair printed on the inside front page of the program on their seat. In the end 30 tables out of 120 had personalized pages in the distributed programs.

Hope springs eternal

Even without personalization the magazine industry shows its mettle.

(Visit http://www.printweek.com/news/1023586/Magazine-print-revenues-rise-hints-recovery/)

Full story:

Magazine print revenues rise hints at recovery
Simon Nias, printweek.com, 23 August 2010
Magazine printers have reported unseasonally strong revenues in July and August, following a gradual increase in paginations from the consumer sector.
Derbyshire-based Buxton Press reported a 15% surge in turnover last month, compared with July 2009, largely due to the upward trend in paginations.
Kirk Galloway, director and general manager at Buxton, said: "In the past two to three months, print runs have started creeping up by an extra 500 or 1,000 copies, but most of the increase has come from paginations and also some new business."
Darren Coxon, managing director at fellow sheetfed magazine printer Pensord, said the Welsh printer was experiencing a similar boost.
"Both pagination and print runs are definitely increasing, which has led to us having just recorded our best ever set of half-year results," he said.
"Our own experience is that circulations are recovering slightly, but it is the paginations that are really going up a lot faster."
Meanwhile, in the longer-run end of the market, Polestar has also reported rising paginations year-on-year, although run lengths have remained "pretty static".
Polestar marketing director James Povey said: "We are seeing an improvement in paginations and, while run lengths are pretty static, the current vogue for bumper packs is having a beneficial effect."
The use of bumper packs, where one or more magazines are given away for free with another, has increased dramatically in the past year as publishers have looked to shore up falling circulations.
NatMag bundled Best, Reveal and Real People 20 times in the six months to 30 June, while Northern & Shell multipacked OK!, New and Star 18 times in the same period.
"There are quite a few going on, which obviously requires more printing," said Povey. "We've definitely seen more than in any previous year."
According to the latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), total circulation for the UK consumer magazine sector rose just 0.3% year-on-year in the first six month of 2010, although Galloway said he was hopeful that the summer sales boost would not prove to be another false dawn for the sector.
"We keep being told about the green shoots of recovery but trading conditions remain challenging for printers and publishers alike," he said.
"At Buxton we're hoping that this noticeable upward trend heralds a more positive phase in the fortunes of our valued clients and is a further indication of our sector's overall resilience and determination."

Augmented Reality

Magazines perhaps have the most opportunity for augmented reality because the levels of meaning are deep and the ironies of life have a better chance of appearing. Now literally. Here is a wonderful video on one magazine's augmented reality.

(the URL is http://www.theawl.com/2010/08/why-just-read-a-magazine-when-you-can-hold-your-smartphone-over-it-and-watch-magic-happen)

This is a good example of the physical becoming more virtual.