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.
Leading media group Bauer Media will partner with LG Mobile in a fully integrated multi-platform marketing campaign promoting the ITV2 seven-part series ‘The Exclusives’ which airs from May 17.
ADH Publishing has announced the acquisition of Aviation Modeller International including Aeromodeller and Flying Scale Models from Key Publishing Ltd.
ELLE, the women’s fashion brand published by Hearst Magazines UK, has appointed a new Deputy Editor.
The NCTJ’s annual Awards for Excellence in Journalism are now open for entries and this year there is a brand new award to celebrate student publications.
Last year, Hachette Filipacchi and NatMag merged to form Hearst Magazines UK, and the new chief operating officer was Anna Jones. Meg Carter talks to Anna about the merger and the outlook for Hearst and the wider publishing industry.
No one will read your glittering promotional copy if your headline doesn’t make them sit up and take notice. Jennifer Menten has eight tips for grabbing your prospects’ attention.
The PPA recently commissioned Wessenden Marketing to conduct a study into how media companies make money in the digital age, entitled, Business Models for a Digital World. Jim Bilton summarises the key findings from the research.
In partnership with the National Portrait Gallery, CBeebies Art magazine has launched a competition inviting readers aged three to seven to create a portrait of their family imagined as the British Royal Family.
Nursery World, one of the UK’s leading b2b publications for practitioners and decision-makers working across the early years education and childcare sector, launched its first international edition in China on 1 May.
Fifty years ago, the Sunday Times launched its colour supplement and broke the mould of weekend newspaper publishing. Former editor Peter Jackson looks at its impact and what future the colour supplement has today.
US consumer magazine publishers are busily pumping out brand extensions in all shapes and sizes. Karlene Lukovitz looks at two manifestations of this, and promises more in future columns!
David Hepworth's regular column, in the May / June 2012 issue of InPublishing.
The UK’s magazine publishing community has pledged to raise literacy standards through the launch of a new charity – MagAid.
The Professional Publishers Association (PPA) has launched an Anti-Piracy Portal to defend magazine publishers against the growing threat from digital copyright infringement.
Sir Steve Redgrave is the cover star of Sport magazine's first ever interactive issue, which is available this Friday (May 11).
