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.
Bauer Media have secured an exclusive six-figure deal with 20th Century Fox to promote its forthcoming new movie, action adventure epic Avatar, which releases in cinemas on Thursday 17th December.
The Two Sides campaign to raise awareness about Print and Paper's good environmental record and dispel many myths that people may have is entering the next phase.
Lingerie brand Triumph has taken advantage of a creative testing service from IPC Media to help choose the visuals for its current magazine campaign, fronted by Louise Redknapp.
Country Life is counting down to Christmas with its “unique” advent calendar cover, which it claims is the only cover of its kind on a UK weekly magazine.
Fighters Only has announced the addition of another international imprint to its magazine portfolio.
Brain World is a brand new magazine dedicated to the human brain - the next great scientific frontier, says publisher CMG.
Hardeep Sandher of Property Week rounded off a strong performance from United Business Media by taking the top honour at the PTC New Journalist of the Year Awards 2009.
RSA Direct, the list, data and direct marketing consultancy announced an addition to their portfolio with their appointment by The National Magazine Company to manage their postal database.
More than 50 senior corporate security executives gathered to hear BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner speak at SC magazine’s first Executive Network recently.
Evelyn Webster, CEO of IPC Media, has announced a new company structure, effective 4 January 2010, organised around three audience groups of men, mass-market women and up-market women.
Maney Publishing is to publish the Journal of Manual & Manipulative Therapy (JMMT) from 2010.
Regeneration & Renewal is to switch from weekly to fortnightly. This is part of a revamp of its content offering in the new year, reflecting, says Haymarket, changing reader and advertiser needs.
Haymarket’s GP newspaper expanded its media partnership with the annual conference of the UK’s Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) when it produced both a special daily edition and online video highlights for the event.
A new comic has come out! Spandex is a brand new comic book series featuring the world’s first all-gay superhero team!
Despite being the least active sector for private equity in the last 12 months, media & communications companies can expect substantially more backing from institutional investors in 2010, says a survey from accountants and business advisers, Grant T
