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.
Time Inc. UK has appointed Roger Cummings as publishing director, Women’s Lifestyle. In his new role, Roger adds woman&home, womanandhome.com and all the woman&home brand extensions to his current portfolio of titles.
Adestra, a provider of email marketing solutions, yesterday announced that their newest feature, the Marketing Automation Program Builder, is now in general availability.
Dundee-based media company DC Thomson has purchased the Scottish women’s lifestyle title, No.1 Magazine.
Telegraph Media Group has appointed Marianne Jones as Editor, Stella Magazine.
Nominations have opened for The Comment Awards 2015, the annual awards recognising and celebrating the UK’s best print and online commentators and their editors.
Online design brand MADE.COM has joined forces with Livingetc, the modern homes magazine, to create eight capsule furniture collections over the next two years.
Colouring Meditation, a new alternate monthly title from Pineapple Media, “full of spiritual, calming colouring-in designs”, goes on sale 18 June, priced £4.99.
As an environmentally conscious organisation, Air Business Group has committed to achieving ISO50001 certification by October 2015.
PA Images, a leading news, sport and entertainment image provider, has appointed Stephen Munday as Managing Director.
The Online Media Awards, organised by The Drum, recognise the best in online news and journalism and on Wednesday night announced its award winners at a ceremony held at the Marriott Grosvenor Square hotel in London.
Hearst Magazines UK, the publisher of Good Housekeeping, ELLE, Harper’s Bazaar and Cosmopolitan, has hired Claire Blunt as its Chief Financial Officer.
Now will be joined by Superdrug for a second year for its annual Smart Girls Fake It summer skin care campaign, to encourage everyone to practise safe sun care and fake their summer glow.
Lotte Jeffs will join Elle on 13 July and will report to Lorraine Candy, Editor-in-Chief.
Marie Claire is bringing its careers franchise, Marie Claire@Work, to life with a one-day conference at BAFTA.
Bloomberg Business was named a business news launch partner of Apple’s iOS9 news reading experience at yesterday’s Worldwide Developers Conference.
