MAD Exclusive Web Content
A few web only features and parodies are beginning to appear on MAD‘s website, including this little gem:
Click image to see a larger version on the MAD website
And this one:
Click image to see a larger version on the MAD website
There are a several more parody ads and magazine posters on the website as well, including the Phelps “High Times” cover and the Madoff movie poster “Scumbag Billionaire” I showed on the site before.
A sign of the future? Maybe. I don’t know exactly what the plans are for the website, but with 3 months between issues there is a lot of talk and thinking about it going on at the office… or so I’m told. Obviously someone drew the Peanuts spoof for MAD, but no credits…
I think this is exactly the sort of stuff they need to have on the website to make visiting it regularly worthwhile. Get readers there, and then have subscription info all over it. A combination web/print model is the way to go.
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It’s a step in the right direction, but the problem with the subscription model is that *almost nobody* – from small companies to some of the biggest names in media – have been able to make a “pay for content on the Internet” model work… except of course for porn sites.
From what I’ve seen, I have very little confidence that any *any* print media entity, MAD included, will be able to successfully go to a model where people buy the print product and also buy subscription content on the web.
MAD, like everyone else, is going to have to break out of the mindset of selling a tangible paper book that is part of a retail transaction, and really innovate a new business model. There’s going to be a transitional period, probably quite lengthy, during which much of what’s now print media will shift to Internet of other electronic publishing – or go out of business entirely.
I don’t think anyone really knows exactly how things are going to work in that transition, but right now most of the revenue from sites that offer some kind of media content doesn’t come directly from selling the content. It comes from more indirect things like selling advertising on the site, selling physical merchandise related to the content, or from some kind of referral system connecting readers to a third party transaction for a commission. Artists in particular are finding some success selling their originals directly to their web readers.
MAD does have one thing going for it: it’s a well-known brand. MAD’s challenge on the Internet will be to translate that brand into something the Internet audience really wants and will visit all the time. It’s a whole different world, it’s going to require a radical rethinking and a ruthless discarding of many of the components of the print business model.
One suggestion for sure to make the website worth visiting regularly – DAILY updates of new, funny content! Can MAD crank out something awesome every day? If so, they’ll get eyeballs, every day.
I don’t think any other update schedule will work well enough. Also, I don’t think that MAD could run a 6-page movie parody for one page per day and hold people’s interest. Daily content will require very different pacing and delivery to keep people hooked, compared to much of MAD’s current “meat” content. Something similar to Dave Berg’s “Lighter Side…” is probably paced better – and I’d almost guarantee you couldn’t go wrong with a daily cartoon from Sergio Aragon?¬©s!
Find that daily update audience – I’d be one of them, for sure – by “giving away” the comedy every day, and the other avenues of profit will open up. This is going to be foreign and frightening to both MAD’s publishing staff and The Usual Gang of Idiots…
It ain’t gonna be easy… for anyone. But it can work.
Well said.
Um, and also, another free hint: http://www.mad.com is for sale. Someone had better pony up and buy it, because straight up, nobody’s gonna dig going to http://www.dccomics.com/mad. I hate to say that, but it’s true. Sorry. :\
mad.com was always taken and Mad’s official URL is MadMag.com.
Those Chris Brown/Peanut parodies are hilarious!
Still any clues on the artist of that piece?
If it’s not S_m V_v_ano, I’ll eat my pimp hat.
They should have, as most magazines really should is a lot of free content paid by advertisers. Extra content available only with a yearly subscription to the magazine. Not sure why this isn’t just common sense.
In Rolling Stone issues you can read an article about a person and more photos and additional content available online as well as archived articles etc. I see Mad does a bit of that, but not really to the extent it should. I know they sell “Mad About Superheros” “Mad About Movies” (didn’t they also put out a TV Show “Mad About You?” 🙂 )and other archive books so they may see it as a conflict of interest. SNL is now putting a lot of clips on Hulu and I’m sure they will make the money back that it dents in DVD sales.
My hope is that MAD figures it out soon. Times like this, humor is invaluable.