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.
“Be everywhere” is a mantra that's been popping up in interviews with magazine media executives — and, writes Karlene Lukovitz, perusing the weekly stream of new-initiative announcements from the majors confirms that this isn't mere hyperbole.
The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) held its inaugural London summit at One Wimpole Street, at the end of September. A fine line-up of speakers debated the issues facing the digital content and information industry. James Evelegh w
David Hepworth's regular column, in the November / December 2013 issue of InPublishing magazine.
Although blogging is a great way to drive traffic to your site, in the early days of the web, traditional publishers were slow to embrace it. Indeed, many are still blind to its potential. This, writes Amanda MacArthur, represents a wasted opportunit
With advertising revenue getting ever-harder to generate, e-commerce could be just the shot in the arm that publishers need, writes Jo Bowman.
This year’s survey, carried out in July and August by AOP’s Head of Research and Insight, Tim Cain, shows publishers increasingly looking to drive value from data for both content and commercial models.
Publishers are investing in technology, but, asks Peter Houston, what about the people that have to use it?
Susi O’Neill, Head of Digital and Content at The River Group, indulges her passion for theatre with the V&A’s Played in Britain app.
This week, Future launched Science Uncovered, a monthly print and digital magazine celebrating popular science. Future’s Ian Robson explains why he thinks the timing is right for this new title.
On 14 November, Raconteur Media and NewsCred held a forum at the London’s Savoy Hotel, entitled ‘The Value of Journalism in Content Marketing’. Sabilah Eboo Alwani summarises the main talking points from the event.
Getting celebrities to guest edit an issue is all the rage. Nothing new there. But getting the heir to the throne to roll up his sleeves is impressive. Country Life editor Mark Hedges explains how he got Prince Charles on board.
Flying the flag for print and paper can be a lonely job in this increasingly digital world, but Peter Sommerville of Denmaur Independent Papers made a pretty good stab at it, at a seminar during the recent Cross Media event. James Evelegh was in the
Editor of Champions Of The Turf, Mark Robinson talks about Future’s partnership with British Champions Series Ltd and Great British Racing to produce a one-off magazine.
On the 3rd October, the great and the good of the digital world gathered for the AOP Autumn Conference at Etc Venues, St Paul’s in London. James Evelegh went along too.
Subs bureaux come in all shapes and sizes. Their outlook and experiences are as varied as the publishing industry they serve. Around the table at the end of July sat the MDs of some of the UK’s leading bureaux, invited by iSUBSCRiBE to mull over the
