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.
Wallpaper*, the international design, fashion and lifestyle title, is set to collaborate with design development platform Revolution on a range of design-led prefabricated homes and pavilions targeting a global market.
Based at the Wirral headquarters of the title, Claudia Tanner will be responsible for the day to day running of the magazine as well as commissioning and editing the health pages, travel and celebrity interviews.
Rock Sound, which has been recently been shortlisted for Consumer Media Brand Of The Year, Consumer Magazine Of The Year and Best Use Of Video in PPA Independent Publisher Awards, has announced a number of new appointments.
Headley has expanded its digital printing division with investment in a cutting-edge HP Indigo 7800 Digital Printing Press.
The official magazine of the American Numismatic Association (ANA), The Numismatist, has announced the launch of its complete digital archives.
Charlie Boyd has been appointed Executive Fashion and Jewellery Editor of Harper’s Bazaar and Town & Country.
The first issue of House & Garden Destinations, a new annual glossy travel supplement from the House & Garden Bespoke team, accompanies the January issue of the magazine on sale Monday 7th December.
Immediate Media Co, the special interest content and platform business, today agreed the sale of GolfMagic and Visordown to Farringdon-based Crash Media Group.
ABC has announced today that Simon Redlich, its current Executive Director of Audit, Finance & ICT, has been appointed interim Chief Executive Officer of ABC and will take up the role from 1st January 2016.
Fearne Cotton has been appointed columnist for Glamour magazine, it was announced yesterday in a video newsflash on Glamour.com.
Deloitte, the business advisory firm, and the Association of Online Publishers (AOP) yesterday released findings from the latest Digital Publishers Revenue Index Report (DPRI).
Fashion weekly Look has published its first-ever model cover, featuring a “curvy” model in partnership with Simply Be.
Bauer Media’s Grazia yesterday announced the appointment of Rebecca Lowthorpe as Fashion Director.
ELLE UK has appointed Kenya Hunt as Fashion Features Director.
European ad verification company Meetrics is helping the online ad industry address the issue of viewability by launching a new offering that enables buyers and sellers of online ads to see why they aren’t viewable.
