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.
The magazine publishing sector is beset with change but, as this year’s PPA Publishing Futures survey reveals, the most notable shift is in the mood of publishers. Here, the report’s author, Jim Bilton of Wessenden Marketing, reflects on the findings
Careers in traditional, “independent” editorial writing / editing may be going the way of the dodo, but the future’s bright indeed for those willing (or driven) to generate sponsored content for media companies or the brands themselves, writes Karlen
The Specialist Media Conference was held in April at the British Library; a fascinating day of panel discussions, presentations and round tables, attended by some of the leading lights of the specialist media world. James Evelegh was there too.
David Hepworth's regular column, in the May / June 2013 issue of InPublishing magazine.
Digital editions are now an established part of any publisher's multi-channel strategy. But beyond the iPad and Newsstand, where can publishers look for inspiration? Future Publishing's Mike Goldsmith looks to another newsstand on the App Store.
2013 sees an expectation of growth in digital revenues in line with the trend of the last two to three years, amongst the UK’s leading digital publishers, according to the results of the latest AOP Organisation Census. Tim Cain looks at the main find
The Supplier Q&A for the May/June 2013 issue of InPublishing was, Is print purely about cost? It was answered by Roger Pitt of Headley Brothers and Andrew LG Jones of Stephens & George.
This time two years’ ago, writes Julian Thorne, the penetration of tablets in the UK stood at 2%. Now, it has cleared 20% and continues to rise fast - fast. Add in exploding smartphone usage and a constant flow of new devices and it all adds up to cr
Vogue is one of publishing’s super brands and its print magazine is still flying high, accounting for 90% of the brand’s ad revenues. Meg Carter talks to publishing director Stephen Quinn about its enduring success and why he sees editorial integrity
All publishers, large and small, face a bewildering array of choices, and plotting a coherent path forward is not easy. Sophia Dempsey, publishing director of Motor Sport magazine, says that the answer is to go back to basics.
The PPA held its annual conference on Wednesday, and Martin Maynard went along to listen to the presentations and discussions.
The publishing industry’s readership isn’t just moving online, it’s moving to mobile, and if consumers can more easily access content from a rival publication that displays more effectively on a handheld device, they will, writes Fiona Salmon.
Carolyn Morgan previews the presentations at next Wednesday’s conference at the British Library.
Last week, Rebekah Billingsley presented a webinar for InPublishing, entitled ‘How to Measure the Success of Your Digital Magazine - the main KPIs and how to measure them.’ In the Q&A session that followed, we ran out of time. Here, Rebekah provides
The PPA’s Publishing Futures survey is an annual bellwether of the health of consumer magazine and business information publishers. Here, PPA CEO Barry McIlheney delves into the data to pull out the key trends.
