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.
Just 24 hours after announcing its ground-breaking automatic compensation scheme for late deliveries, Smiths News has upset the NFRN by advising of an average 2 per cent increase in its carriage charge.
Future plc last week announced record-breaking Amazon Prime Day results. Future's advertising and eCommerce partners benefited from record traffic and transactions, says the company.
Analysis by the World Media Group confirms that advertising campaigns viewed within a trusted editorial environment are yielding much better results for attention and viewability than the industry standard.
Immediate Media Co has announced a proposal to integrate Hubert Burda Media UK into its Bristol business.
Q2 2019 IPA Bellwether Report shows zero overall growth following slight recovery in Q1.
Slime Factory is a 36-page gender-neutral magazine aimed at kids aged 7-11 years old, published by DC Thomson Media.
Condé Nast has appointed Natalia Gamero de Castillo as Managing Director of Condé Nast Spain, effective immediately.
Signature Publishing is teaming up with Universal Brand Development to launch Spirit Riding Free magazine.
The Financial Times has appointed Jo Ellison as editor of luxury magazine, How To Spend It, from September.
MediaFund has announced the sale of Scotland Magazine, Scotland’s Best, Ireland’s Best and the Scottish Hotel Awards, assets of Paragraph Publishing, to The Chelsea Magazine Company.
Does your CEO know what your subscriber retention rate is? The chances are, probably not. But, according to Julian Thorne, author of our Guide to Retention Strategies for Publishers, this number should never be far from his or her (or your) mind.
Signature Publishing, a specialist children’s publisher, has teamed with Nurture Rights for the UK launch of The World Of Dinosaur Roar! magazine.
Quarterly theatre magazine Plays International & Europe has launched a new digital archive on Exact Editions’ platform.
Quizzler, a summer special from The Week Junior designed to stretch curious young minds, went on sale this week.
Nemorin Film & Video, a branded video agency, has appointed Graham Hayday as its first chief operating officer to help fuel the company’s growth plans.
