December 17, 2002 Magazine publishers have to reinvent their products faster and more often than in the past, and can no longer count on stable subscription rates opening advertising doors, an article in yesterday's New York Times concludes. Their best bet? The Internet as a subscription generator tool.

With postal rates rising and the newsstand wholesale market becoming concentrated, new, novel initiatives are the way to go, the article says. For the benefit of those with no NYTimes password:

"Reed Phillips, a managing partner of DeSilva & Phillips, who predicted that magazines will be putting increased efforts and money into using the Internet to lure readers who may be potential subscribers. The magazines are already using promotions on their individual Web sites to overcome the subscription gap created by the loss of sweepstakes.

'I think the big surprise in the coming year will be that the publishing industry will start talking about the Internet again," Mr. Phillips said. "They have very few options, and the Web is the one source of subscriptions that is still growing.'"