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 Subscription Marketing 2009 survey run by Wessenden Marketing and InPublishing and sponsored by CDS Global, has produced fascinating insights into the current state of subscription marketing practice in the UK publishing industry. Wessenden’s Jim
The Magazine Group, the online magazine store, is to give £8 to NewstrAid for every order placed via a special page on its site.
The legendary pop magazine returns for the second time this year, with a Take That special issue on sale Wednesday (Nov 18).
Trader Media Group has recruited specialist field marketer, Instore, to drive sales using strategic merchandise support.
IPC Ignite’s iconic music magazine NME is publishing a special End of Decade issue, celebrating the changing shape of music over the last ten years.
After 11 years’ service, Wayne Manning, publishing director of Haymarket’s Print and Packaging group, will be leaving Haymarket at the end of 2009.
This week sees the release of NME The Album 2009 – a double CD of tracks from the greatest bands and artists to have rocked the music world in 2009.
Pressure on shelf space at the multiples, coupled with some “puzzling” decisions from WH Smith, means, says Bruce Skivington, that specialist publishers should invest more of their time and energy in the humble independent newsagent.
Hello! is one of publishing’s mega-brands, the granddaddy of the celebrity market and begetter of a host of rivals, some of whom have the affront to now sell more. Meg Carter talks to publishing director Charlotte Stockting about what the brand means
Do you remember the good times? Circs hitting 600k, advertisers queuing at the door, expense accounts, burgeoning staffs. Those were the days! The problem was that, in catering for the needs of marginal readers, we started to alienate our core. We lo
Just as the secret of good comedy is ... err .... wait for it ... TIMING, the secret of successful project implementation is communication. Effective meeting, talking, listening and documenting form the cornerstone of well managed projects, as Matthe
The ACE CDP was launched earlier this year. Here, Chris Collins explains the thinking behind it and looks ahead to 2010.
As part of a restructure of their Brand Media Group, Haymarket is closing the print edition of MediaWeek.
To help support its High Definition Christmas Campaign, Sky is renaming its Sky Movies Screen 2 to ‘The Sky Movies Christmas Channel’ for the festive season and is partnering with IPC TX’s portfolio of TV magazines and whatsontv.co.uk to promote the
Total Off Road publisher Waterways World has announced the launch of spin-off title Off Road Yearbook 2010.
