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.
Dawson Media Direct announced the launch this week of the first in a planned series of territory-specific ‘microsites’, designed to serve its publisher and airline customers in Thailand.
The planet’s newest arrivals are not digital natives, but print. Guided by anxious parents and drawn in by its tactile qualities, kids spend their early years enjoying traditional media. The children’s market is thriving, and as Cally Poplak tells Jo
The dominant US-based magazine media companies continue to expand their digital and data capabilities through internal initiatives and investing in or acquiring synergistic companies, writes Karlene Lukovitz.
Forget digital first, publishers now have to think mobile first, with smartphones and tablets accounting for over 60% of traffic for many media brands. Carolyn Morgan looks at how publishers’ mobile strategies are evolving.
Hearst’s marketing and circulation department has had a particularly busy couple of years. As Reid Holland tells Meg Carter, a root and branch restructure followed by a radical strategy overhaul for one of its leading titles, has yielded some very po
David Hepworth on magazines and beyond
Jim Foster on the world of ePublishing
Search engines and publishers are both caught in the same dilemma, writes Amanda Watlington: how to retain the increasingly fragmented attention of their users and readers.
Comics have come a long way from a pocket money treat. Now there are toys, posters, stickers and even a magazine thrown in. Alan Geere peruses the bottom shelf of the newsagents for the pre-school magazines.
How often do you come across something interesting to read, make a mental note to come back to it later, but never do? No doubt, very. There’s now help at hand – Pocket, an app which Phil Hilton promises, will teach you, charm you and stretch you.
Hearst Magazines UK, the publisher of Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, ELLE and Harper’s Bazaar, is continuing to invest in its digital advertising team by making a number of key appointments.
Six-in-10 Britons interested in the Olympics will share content online about it – according to research from marketing technology firm RadiumOne, which reveals the what, how and how much of sharing content around the 2016 games in Rio.
The Print Futures Awards continue to grow with a record 88 applicants and 50 winners this year, says The Printing Charity.
Puzzler Media, a leading provider of puzzle magazines for over 40 years, has chosen Quadrant Subscription Services to manage their subscriptions.
Time Inc UK is publishing a one-off special for the YouTube generation, tapping into the vlogging phenomenon.
