Final answer:
Split-run editions allow magazines to tailor ads and content to specific geographic regions, which is essential in the current media environment where digital revenue is increasingly crucial for print media survival due to the sharp decline in traditional advertising sources.
Step-by-step explanation:
A split-run edition of a national magazine tailors its content to different geographic regions. This typically involves customizing the advertisements, but sometimes also includes varying the editorial content to better appeal to regional audiences.
The provided information outlines the challenges faced by print media, including newspapers and magazines, in adapting to the modern media landscape, marked by a significant decline in advertising revenue due to the rise of online platforms like Craigslist and specialist job-search websites. It also highlights how digital revenue streams, through online advertisements and digital pay plans, are increasingly important for these publications to remain financially viable.
Magazines such as National Geographic have adapted by publishing in multiple languages and maintaining a global circulation, and newspapers are utilizing digital resources and social media to distribute their content more widely. Yet despite these efforts, newspapers, particularly local ones, face significant hardships, with some smaller town newspapers folding as they lose advertising revenue and struggle with shifting readerships to digital platforms.