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.
Future plc, the international special-interest media group, has provided a pre-close trading update ahead of its results for the year ending 30 September 2009 which will be announced on 26 November 2009.
Bauer Media have secured a multi-platform advertising campaign with the Central Office of Information (COI) to promote the Department of Children's, Schools and Families (DCSF) Diplomas.
The first-ever Waitrose Food and Home catalogue started distribution yesterday at Waitrose branches.
After studying the Office of Fair Trading’s (OFT) rationale for refusing to make a referral of the newspaper and magazine industry to the Competition Commission for a full market investigation (MIR), the National Federation of Retail Newsagents (NFRN
On 24 September, the OFT today announced that it will not refer the newspaper and magazine distribution sector to the Competition Commission (CC).
Research from IPC Ignite shows young men to be a powerful force in spreading the word about cinema releases and finds that their frequent visits to the cinema are set to continue.
Bauer Media’s luxury fashion weekly Grazia has secured a deal with GIVe, a new fashion brand founded by retail legend George Davies launching nationwide in October 2009. The deal worth over £200k was brokered between the client and Grazia’s Creative
In an exclusive and wide-ranging interview in the new-look New Statesman, Prime Minister Gordon Brown outlines his vision of the next general election – and a key theme of his conference speech.
The first UK exhibition dedicated to trading, managing and reducing carbon emissions will be opened next week by Michael Heseltine, chairman and owner of Haymarket Media Group.
Leading customer publishing business PSP Rare has been appointed by the Royal Society to produce a special commemorative programme for their 350th anniversary.
The Council of Europe recently launched its ‘New Earth Deal’ campaign in advance of the UN’s Climate Change Conference in Denmark in December. The focus by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe is firmly on the part to be played by gove
IPC Southbank is working with John Lewis in a significant partnership this autumn to promote their autumn collection across five of its home interest titles.
NME has announced a new process for ticket sales to the Shockwaves NME Awards 2010, which will take place February 24, 2010 at O2 Academy Brixton Academy.
Polestar has won two monthly titles from BMJ Publishing Group Ltd, re-establishing its relationship with the company after a number of years.
Food and Travel Magazine has launched a comprehensive guide to short-breaks in Europe, the European Cities Collection, containing profiles of 74 cities across 27 countries.
