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.
With renewal marketing, as with dating; it pays to make an effort and not to make any assumptions. A subscriber, like a date, can decline your offer. Andrew Majewski has some tried and tested techniques to keep these important relationships alive.
With increasing pressures on circulation levels and advertising revenue, publishers are having to look again at their production processes for cost savings. Richard Mason looks at three areas which provide real opportunities for greater efficiencies.
It’s nice to feel welcome and appreciated. It gives a warm glow and makes you pleasantly disposed to whoever’s doing the welcoming. And, if the warm glow continues, then you’ll probably want to extend the relationship. All of which means, says David
Increasing distribution costs and paper prices, advertising budgets being cut, and mounting competition from other media mean that a small B2B publishing outfit has to concentrate on being efficient and manoeuvrable in order to grow, according to Ham
Brand recognition is a wonderful thing for a magazine to have. Vogue has it, the Economist has it, Reader’s Digest has it. In fact, Reader’s Digest’s standing goes beyond brand recognition; it’s really something of an institution. Why, then, would su
The latest set of ABCs clearly shows the effect of the credit crunch. As house prices decline and gloom spreads, there has been an inevitable impact on magazine sales. However, says Lucy Brunning, the picture is far from universally dire and some sec
Print media is thriving in India. Restrictions on foreign media ownership have eased and the economy is booming. For international publishers, India is seen as a highly attractive market, in spite of continuing difficulties in areas such as pricing a
Successful sales letters connect with the prospect. The deeper the connection, the greater the chance of making the sale. That is why, says Chris Gregory, copywriters need to exhaustively research the connections between the product and the prospect
If the sight of Christmas decorations going up before the clocks have changed gets your goat, then a career in subscriptions is not for you. In subscriptions, the wrapper is barely off the last Creme Egg before the first Christmas planning meeting is
The secret of a successful magazine launch is planning (and common sense). Thorough planning will help you stifle bad ideas early, avoid silly mistakes and ensure that all the elements of the supply chain are pulling in the same direction. Here, Mike
The PPA and Royal Mail commissioned Wessenden Marketing to map out scenarios for the future of the magazine subscription by looking at how other industries approach the customer journey and applying those insights to the magazine business. Jim Bilton
Magazine titles are not commodities. The price for which they will sell can vary spectacularly from one day to the next and depends on a whole host of factors. Presentation, timing and nerve are needed to see the process through to a successful concl
A lot is expected of today’s editor. In addition to having to fulfil all the traditional requirements of the job, they now need to be sure footed with new technologies; to be willing and able to interact with readers; to support the commercial teams
When economies hit rocky patches, magazine sales tend to head south. In the US, recent cover price increases may have accelerated that trend. Karlene Lukovitz assesses the damage.
Most publishers claim to know their readers; to know their likes, dislikes, hopes and fears. This is quite surprising because most publishers don’t actually get face to face with their readers very often. This is a missed opportunity, because the per
