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.
Despite the trend to digital, publishers still get through a lot of paper, but are they making the right choices? We grab five minutes with Danny Doogan, director of marketing and sustainability at Denmaur Paper Media.
Hearst UK has announced it is partnering with DS Automobiles for Red Smart Women Week, which launches on the 18th of September this year.
Immediate Media Co yesterday announced an agreement to acquire BBC Good Food, a leading food media brand, from BBC Studios.
TI Media has selected SPRYLAB technologies to be its interactive e-publishing platform provider of choice in the UK market.
Science+Nature is a new monthly magazine from the team behind The Week Junior, and it goes on sale from 1st September 2018.
The PPA has raised serious concerns following Jeremy Corbyn’s Alternative MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival, where he set out a vision for the future media landscape under a future Labour government.
In 1968, Time Out was created in London to help people make the most of the city. The brand’s fiftieth anniversary will be celebrated with a book and an exhibition, both titled Time Out 50: 50 Years, 50 Covers and featuring fifty memorable magazine c
Hachette Partworks has this week launched a new 80-part partwork, aimed at men aged 20 plus.
Hachette Partworks has this week launched a new 80-part partwork, aimed at men aged 16 plus.
Hearst UK yesterday announced the winners of its inaugural Big Book initiative, an awards and accreditation scheme aimed at discovering the best new fiction and non-fiction titles in UK publishing.
Corsair is set to publish The 10 Commandments: the Rock Star’s Guide to Life, which they describe as a “surprising, informative and at times outrageous must-have guide to life from the world’s most famous rock stars”.
Immediate Media Co has announced the launch of a new collectable series in the UK: Lego Star Wars trading cards.
BBC Good Food has launched its first ever Alexa Skill accessing its entire collection of over 11,000 recipes.
James Evelegh's editorial from today's edition of InPubWeekly.
Creating a rich mix of written and video content, kitchen appliances brand NEFF is working with TI Media to share the benefits of its new Slide&Hide oven range with the publisher’s woman&home and Ideal Home audiences.
