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.
Publishing exists in a state of constant flux, with new trends and ideas replacing old orthodoxies as regularly as the stream of new titles being launched into the marketplace. It’s what makes it so exhilarating and exhausting in almost equal measure
Instant news is everywhere - on TV, radio, phone, tablet and even a bus shelter near you. So who needs a news and current affairs magazine anymore? Alan Geere gets the intelligence on a sector that is showing consistent sales increases and multimedia
There is a weird retro feel to both the magazine and the magazine subscription. While some parts of the business are operating at the cutting edge of digital subscription marketing, the majority are not. The simple fact is that 70% of consumer magazi
The Freedom of Information Act came into force in January 2005. One decade on, how is FoI viewed by politicians and publishers? Jon Slattery investigates.
Jim Foster on the world of ePublishing
Closing in on its hundredth birthday, Good Housekeeping has had a particularly hectic eighteen months, embarking on a number of ground-breaking innovations. But, as Lindsay Nicholson and Judith Secombe tell Meg Carter, the cornerstone of the brand’s
The seventh annual AOP Content and Trends Census points to a digital sector focused on data and multiplatform integration, whilst not forgetting the elephant in the room – ad blocking. Tim Cain summarises the main findings of the research.
“Paper’s paper” seems to sum up the prevailing view at some magazine publishers of one of the essential raw ingredients in print publishing, and this represents a major missed opportunity. Denmaur Independent Papers’ Julian Townsend and Peter Sommerv
David Hepworth on magazines and beyond
Love it or loathe it, one can’t ignore the BuzzFeed phenomenon. Tim Danton is particularly impressed with its app; the simplicity of use, ease of interaction and the sheer chutzpah of its commercial model.
Bauer Media’s movie magazine Empire has partnered with Lucasfilm and multi-national toy maker Hasbro to unveil the second in its series of four exclusive Star Wars issues.
ABC has issued its second industry report which compares test results for online ad viewability measurement products.
Archant has announced the launch of Love Your Pet, a new content strand to run across its full portfolio of over 130 brands.
ShortList, the men’s magazine published by Shortlist Media, is celebrating wit, wisdom and what makes men great by publishing its Greatest Issue, out Thursday 26 November.
Immediate Media Co yesterday announced an agreement to acquire Jewellery Maker, a TV and online ecommerce platform, from The Genuine Gemstone Company.
