REALTOR Magazine to Cut Back in Print

REALTOR Magazine is to cut the number of issues it publishes to six per year from 2010, according to agentgenius.com.

REALTOR Magazine is the official magazine of the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), and claims to have a readership of 1.26 million. The magazine, which is also available online, was discussed at the NAR’s Communication Committee meeting last month. agentgenius.com quotes NAR senior vice president of communications and conventions, Frank Sibley, as saying that the change to six issues per year is “an economic decision resulting from the current economic situation”.

The drop in the number of print issues comes as REALTOR Magazine looks to expand its online presence. In a blog post from April this year, REALTOR Magazine editor-in-chief Stacey Moncrieff discussed the sustainability of the print version, writing: “We remain committed to being ‘the business tool for real estate professionals,’ but in what form and at what cost is in your hands.”

In discussing her post with readers, Moncrieff added:

“Even as we cut back on print, we’re moving down a number of avenues to expand our reach online. We’re in the process of choosing a digital edition vendor; that’ll enable us to deliver a PDF version of the magazine to you via e-mail. We’re also working on a mobile version of select content — first for the iPhone and then for the Blackberry and Treo.

We already offer RSS feeds of our daily news and blogs, and our sister site, realtor.org, is working with a vendor on a ratings and comments function, which will enable our Web pages to accept comments. Finally, we’re moving into direct reader education, hosting free monthly Webinars. Our first two program have attracted a total of more than 10,000 registrants.”

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