Big ideas and I go back to my boyhood in the 1940s when I figured out how to win World War II single-handedly. Given that success, I continued to immerse myself in ideas — magazine publishing in New York, book publishing in Cambridge and Boston, advertising in Boston and, since 1974, entrepreneuring in Marblehead.
An attribute common to many ideas, even the big ones, is obviousness. The canny New York ad man Ed McCabe explained it best: "Oftentimes an idea is so simple, so obvious, you look at it and say, 'Hey, I could've thought of that!' And, guess what? You could."
An example from personal experience: The infinite potential suggested by the marriage of two everyday objects — a book and a tape recorder — inspired me to send a proposal to Time Inc. for Books on Tape, a proposal they rejected in a letter of June 26 ... please note the year ... 1969.
The notion of Books on Tape didn't call for rocket science or a Ph.D. in quantum physics. This wasn't the invention of the atomic clock, after all.
All it took was one obvious book, one obvious tape player and one connect-a-dot brain. Anyone could have conceived it. Anyone did — lots of anyones, obviously.
We better know Books on Tape today by its longer handle: Multi-Billion-Dollar-a-Year Audiobook Industry. Thus it could easily have been you reading Newsweek in 1980 when lightning struck: Instead of a variety of articles and advertising, why couldn't the contents of a magazine simply be one complete book, with advertising?!
That's exactly how obvious and easily conveyed the BookMagazine idea is; and exactly how it occurred to me. I spent the next few years doing my homework and putting together a game plan.
Some bullets:
A BookMagazine is a full-length book published in magazine format — with or without advertising. (With advertising it could be more advantageously priced than without, naturally.)
Product categories could include: Best Sellers, Textbooks, Book Clubs, you name it.
A magazine is unquestionably the most ergonomically user-friendly way to hold and manipulate, stash and carry a book — compare with hardcover, paperback, e-book.
They could be sold anywhere there's a magazine rack or by subscription.
They would have great advertiser appeal with easily targeted, upscale audiences. They would also have the high pass-along value of a book.
They would have the advantage of likelier cover-to-cover readership than a traditional magazine with its diverse content.
Comments on my idea dating back in 1988:
Marketing wizard Jack Connors: "Wow. How come nobody's done this before? We need to get you legal protection."
Investment guru Peter Lynch: "I'll have Randall Jones, publisher of Worth magazine, contact you."
William S. Rukeyser, CEO, Whittle Communications: "I share your perceptions."
Steven Hill, VP Trade Books, Houghton Mifflin: "I like your unconventional thinking regarding our seemingly irrational industry."
Lewis Lapham, editor of Harper's Magazine: "I hope you come across a publisher who has the wit to recognize an idea whose time has come."
The year 1990 was a promising one for me. I self-published two novellas in a BookMagazine. Articles on my BookMagazine idea appeared in Publishing News, Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, and Adweek. But in 1995, frustrated in my lone-wolf pursuit, I shelved the idea.
But, to update Lewis Lapham, the time has more than come. There's no need to belabor the obvious: The ever-deepening crisis and precipitous decline of the book and magazine publishing and advertising industries speaks for itself. Traditional measures, can, at best, only slow the decline; it's time for alternative solutions.
E-books are already up and running. It's possible, as well, that somewhere on the planet BookMagazines are on the drawing board or about to come to market. But I've never been one to trust in the "possible." I'm going public with the BookMagazine idea because it's an obvious, immediately-at-hand way to almost instantly revitalize the critically afflicted book, magazine and advertising industries, and it has to be made known.
What may not be evident is that I want no further involvement, and no compensation whatsoever. The idea is gratis, free, pro bono. I intend to continue writing and baying at other ideas.
My mirror agrees this is the right thing to do. Obviously.
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Bob Baker of Marblehead has held management positions in magazine and book publishing and was creative director for major Boston ad agencies. He has written a memoir, "Adventures Outside The Box," and has contributed previously to the opinion pages of The Salem News.
