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.
IPC Advertising has appointed Jon Tickner as creative development director. Jon takes up his role with immediate effect, reporting into Matt Downs, creative media director.
Nuts, the weekly men’s magazine, has partnered with mobile image recognition and augmented reality platform Blippar, to produce its most ambitious interactive print edition to date.
Imagine Publishing has announced the winners of the inaugural Android Magazine awards, the first magazine awards dedicated solely to the very best phones, tablets and apps for the world’s “most popular mobile platform”.
Alamy kick starts next phase in USA sales strategy with recruitment of new VP of Sales for North America.
The French La Poste and Swiss Post, two of Europe’s principal postal operators, have announced their intention to combine their respective cross-border mail activities in order to further enhance and develop their international mail business.
Wyndeham Group announced yesterday that it has entered into a 30-day consultation process with employees at its Wyndeham Heron web offset printing subsidiary in Essex.
Multivariate testing from Maxymiser is being used on ‘The Week’ subscriptions microsite to find the page designs, content and layouts that most effectively convert web visitors to paying subscribers.
In conjunction with the Bauer Media Group, GR/DD was tasked with designing and developing the essential 2012 calendar app for FHM readers.
The new edition of FIPP World Magazine Trends 2011-12 is now published in digital edition.
Internationally famous music brand NME and camera manufacturer Nikon are to host an exhibition for the winning photographers of the 2011 NME Music Photography Awards competition.
The Professional Publishers Association (PPA) has opened The PPA Awards 2012 for entry with the addition of a new category to recognise and celebrate diversity in publishing.
Sir Georg Solti’s recording of Wagner’s Ring Cycle has been voted the greatest recording of all time in a close-run poll of the country’s leading classical music critics, carried out by BBC Music Magazine.
Which are the most rated beauty products of 2011 as voted for by real women? The answers, says H Bauer Publishing, are to be found in the latest issue of Bella magazine on sale from Tuesday 20 December.
The ACE International Circulation & Distribution Awards were held in London on 6 December.
The Cloud, the free public WiFi provider, is to be the headline sponsor of the 2012 Retail Week Conference.
