What is Mindful Media?
The magazine that you take to the couch, or the podcast you make time for each week … both are examples of Mindful Media. Worth your time and worth your mind.
So, what is Mindful Media?
Here are the core attributes of Mindful Media…
- Worth your quality relaxation time
- You look forward to spending time with it
- You will make time to consume it on its own, that is, not while consuming other mediums
- Directly speaks to you and the things you are interested in
- Gives you an experience of in-mind time
- Not so much about them, but a lot about you
- You can inhabit that media world and come away feeling challenged, refreshed and inspired
- Consciously opted in to, often with actual money, subscription, or community ownership
- Personal brand comfortably intersects with it – you don’t mind other folk knowing you’re into it, in fact it’s pretty cool
- A quiet pleasure to opt in to, handle and talk about
The other day I was spending time with my favourite podcast on a long walk and I realised I kept drifting off and having to wind back to pick up the thread. The same thing happens when I’m reading a good book or magazine. The cool thing about the drift-off is that it kept going to completely inspired places. So much so I had to stop and write down stuff. These notes were only semi-related to the content of podcast, but were TOTALLY part of the experience of consuming it. Yep – we’ll be going back for more of that.
The same thing happens when I read Monocle, The Economist or our own WellBeing magazine. The pleasurable experience of the magazine is partly the content, and partly the mindset it creates. Mindful Media could be said to be part of the Slow Media Movement, but Mindful Media puts the facilitation of thought front and centre in the user experience.
Although WellBeing publishes on numerous platforms, it is the print experience that gives this experience. Cherished in-mind time is one of the pleasures of reading a print magazine. A scan of the letters pages of this publication – yes, WellBeing still has a letters page – shows the depth of experience that some of these readers are having.
Recently at Universal Media Co we had cause to talk with consumers between the ages of 12 and 35 about their media consumption habits. Are they digital? You bet. Are they visual? Completely – and with distinct preferences in sub-generational groups. But what do they really want? The calm pleasures of in-mind time. The centennials especially are wise to the distortions of social media, and open to the rewards of longer-form reading. Millennials are actually driving the increase in print book sales in the US; perhaps this is a sign of things to come.
As media practitioners we hope to deliver to our audiences those precious moments of in-mind time.
UMco Media Blog
The UMco Media Blog is an informal discussion of ideas and concepts in media and marketing.
Janice Williams
Janice Williams is the Publisher at UMCo and passionate about communicating with high-value communities.
