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.
Country Life magazine has launched its new online Picture Library www.countrylifeimages.co.uk, making public a remarkable collection of images from over 100 years of architectural and garden photography, as well as high-quality images of contemporary
IPC Media's International department, part of the licensing and syndication division IPC+, has announced the launch of an Indian edition of Livingetc – its modern homes magazine.
This summer, as the Simpsons animated TV series approaches its 20th anniversary, Springfield’s first family will be appearing as never seen before on the covers of three very special issues of Simpsons Comics!
IPC Weeklies group advertising director Kate MacKenzie has announced two key changes to the structure of the IPC Weeklies advertising team, bringing trading across all the brands in the IPC Connect and TX portfolios under one advertising director for
Pro2col Ltd, a leading supplier and integrator of file transfer and workflow technologies in the UK and Ireland, has announced their appointment as EU resellers of the high-performance file transfer software, ExpeDat.
Atex has announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with PPF Media, a Prague-based division of PPF Group, to provide advisory and consulting support services in print and multimedia training for Central and Eastern Europe.
Wargames Illustrated has a new owner and a new look. Polybagged and perfect bound, the revamped historical gaming title is, says the publisher, bigger, brighter and includes a free plastic figurine.
UK women are taking the current recession in their stride – taking more control of their finances, but still making sure there’s money left for treats. These are the key findings of the second annual Money Matters survey of UK women’s attitude to the
This week, the FIPP World Magazine Congress witnesses the launch of dsb.net, what is claimed to be a "next generation" subscription fulfilment bureau.
One issue later than expected, Ian Phillips is back with the second part of his article looking at mailing services. With the recent Hooper Report still causing ructions between the government, the unions, and its own backbenchers, Ian ponders some o
Advertising-free publications are nothing new. Newsletters have been doing it for years, but they are unusual in the farming market where the big machinery manufacturers provide valuable revenue streams for many of the leading titles. Yet it was that
The Publishing Futures survey, run by Wessenden Marketing and InPublishing and sponsored by Wide Area, has produced fascinating insights into the current and future state of the publishing industry. The full results are available at www.widearea.co.u
Are publishers missing millions through high opt-out rates? Permission marketing consultancy, Opt-4, conducted a survey at the 2009 Publishing Expo to test awareness amongst publishers of the negative impact of opt-out rates on millions of profitable
Like everyone in publishing battling for survival in the face of recession, Yvonne Ossman, UK publisher of the Economist, has a challenging year ahead. But while others grapple with how best to scale back new investment, cut costs - even manage decli
Shelf displays and other point-of-sale promotions may help set tills ringing, but many magazine publishers are routinely spending on in-store promos they don’t believe in and don’t really want. Jo Bowman looks at why.
