Consumer magazines spent most of the past two decades managing decline. The more confident publishers have stopped doing that. Newsstand sales and print advertising are still shrinking, but well-made titles with loyal readers are raising cover prices and growing.
Scale matters less than it did. Bauer has made Grazia a more premium product and charged more for it, while independents such as Anthem have put print back at the centre of the business and grown their export sales. Stylist has changed format several times without losing its readers. Others have gone the other way, and Gay Times dropped print entirely to build a global audience online.
For most consumer publishers, print is our USP. It’s the anchor that makes advertisers trust us and the very thing that readers want from us.
Jon Bickley Our print strategy: Anthem
Behind the confidence sits some hard arithmetic. Newstrade is now a small share of revenue and events and ecommerce are growing from a low base. Trust has become a selling point as AI fills the web with content of uncertain origin, but the paid-for consumer model that works at scale is still being worked out.
Below you'll find some of our best feature articles on consumer magazines, from premium print and cover pricing to brand extensions, membership and the future of specialist titles, alongside our latest news and industry commentary.
For a while now, magazine publishers have been on the defensive, unsure about the viability of their traditional business model in a fast-changing world. Katie Vanneck-Smith wants to change all that.
We asked Tamar Riley, portfolio managing director at Immediate, what does best practice publishing look like in consumer media? This is what she said…
For premium titles like Grazia, Mojo and Empire, growth is increasingly coming not from extending reach but from deepening engagement with existing passionate audiences, as Lauren Holleyoake tells Ciar Byrne.
The printed magazine will be a cherished part of people’s lives for years to come, says Jon Bickley, co-founder and CEO. That is why it’s the key component in Anthem’s publishing strategy.
With the arrival of AI and the widespread availability of unattributable content, specialist publishers need to ensure that their titles are the trusted go-to brands in their sectors, Our Media’s Andy Marshall tells Ciar Byrne.
Stylist’s mission has been clear from day one: to engage with its female audience in an intelligent, positive and non-exploitative way. 16 years on, and current PPA Media Brand of the Year, they are staying true to those values, says Lisa Smosarski.
Gay Times was stuck in a rut, tied to its traditional publishing model and reaching only a small part of the LGBTQ+ community. Under the editorship of Lewis Corner, that began to change, as he explains to Ciar Byrne.
Whatever the rest of 2024 holds, two things are certain. Firstly, the bumpy economic ride will continue. Secondly, the need for media companies to have a broad base of revenue streams has never been more important or more challenging to achieve.
How do you create a specialist consumer media business that is fit for the future? What steps do you need to take to be resilient and flexible as audiences and technology evolve? Carolyn Morgan researched 20 innovators from across Europe to find out.
For many publishers, circulation is all about chasing volume, but they would be much better off chasing profitability, says Natalie Smith, client relationship manager at Warners.
Bauer Media last week announced the appointment of Jill Ford as Head of HR/Business Partner for the UK publishing business, to focus on offering dedicated strategic HR support for UK publishing.
Some magazines occasionally relaunch, some repackage, some, even, reimagine. One title, writes James Evelegh, that does none of those things, and remains resolutely unchanged, is Dennis Publishing’s The Week.
With its 20th birthday somewhat spoiled by Covid-19, writes James Evelegh, the one silver lining perhaps was the realisation that they were experiencing first-hand a truly historic moment, which would provide rich content for years to come.
This spring saw the launch issue of The Delicate Rébellion, a twice-yearly magazine created and fulfilled by one-woman band Hannah Taylor out of her top floor Edinburgh flat. It’s a thing of beauty but how far can one woman take it?
Over the years, John Barnes, CDO at William Reed Business Media has won more AOP awards that you can shake a stick at. James Evelegh tuned in to hear him being interviewed on The InPublishing Podcast to see what insights he could pick up.
Bauer’s six-title motorcycling portfolio faces a number of challenges, some unique to its biker market, some common to all consumer magazine publishers. James Evelegh looks at what they’re doing about it.
First News, a newspaper for young people, has achieved a 17.5% increase in its readership figures with more than 2.6 million weekly readers across all its platforms, according to a recent survey.
Wired has announced a new virtual conference, Wired Health:Tech.
Art Africa has announced a new digital archive, dating back to 2017, in partnership with digital archiving company Exact Editions.
Time Out London’s first post-lockdown print magazine will be released on 11th August. The special edition will be dedicated to the memory of Time Out’s founder, Tony Elliott, who died recentlly.
Signature Publishing is to launch special issue of We Love magazine dedicated to DreamWorks Trolls World Tour, a musical adventure from NBCUniversal and DreamWorks Animation.
Can you remember your first subscription? James Evelegh’s was ‘Look and Learn’. Here he celebrates his son’s first…
Emmy-winning actor, musician, director, writer and activist, Riz Ahmed, has been appointed as a Contributing Editor for British Vogue.
Marie Claire UK, Future’s fashion and beauty brand, is launching Marie Claire Beauty Drawer, which it describes as the “ultimate members club for beauty-loving women”.
Samaritans has launched a new edition of its Media Guidelines featuring new advice and resources on how to report suicide and self-harm safely.
