associationFOCUS | Volume 8, Issue 2

brands further. Airbnb, ASOS, Facebook, Google and Uber have all created magazines that allow them to reach their employees and customers more effectively. Some are even sold on a stand - alone basis, such as ASOS Magazine. ASOS sold for $1.25 per issue and had a circulation of 453,287 during the second half of 2018. The magazine has been challenging Teen Vogue and Glamour and has included content about celebrities such as Lena Dunham, Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lawrence. Even Amazon, a company that could not exist without the internet, created a holiday toy catalog filled with QR codes and sent physical copies to many customers in November 2018 after Toys R Us went out of business. (The online PDF version had links to the Amazon website.) Amazon is continuing to produce new versions annually. Part of what is driving the move from digital back to print is as simple as getting burned out on all things digital. When you’ve been surrounded by digital media your entire life, anything analog looks different and valuable. For those who rely on advertising revenue, the facts about magazine ads versus digital ads are striking. MarketingProfs reports the following: » 92% of those 18-23 like reading print content more than digital content. » Direct-mail marketing has a response rate that is 37% higher than the response rate for email. The combination of print and digital is a powerful one. It has even collected some names: » Phygital » Bricks and clicks » Clicks and mortar A good magazine can do something newspapers have struggled with: making money from adver - tisers because subscribers will read the ads in them while they are browsing through the articles. The resulting ROI is a powerful persuader for supporting print as well as digital media. The synergy between articles and ads only works, of course, when the content is worth reading and when the content is in balance with the ads. But even if Amazon and Google have decided to make use of print and direct mail, despite being the giants of digital media, smaller companies should certainly take note. The beauty of print is also in the fact that once something is published, it cannot be edited or modified, so everything has to be perfect. Furthermore, knowledge is positioning itself as the new form of ‘cultural currency,’ allowing people to be associated with something they desire. Arby Li Editor-in-chief, HYPEBEAST 12 | association FOCUS