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.
Take up of retailer loyalty cards has increased significantly over the last ten years. Tesco Clubcard offers publishers a range of opportunities to target customers and grow sales through stores, and increasingly, online. David Stam examines the pros
There are lots of things you need to consider before embarking on a relaunch. For a start, is it really necessary? Are the changes you have in mind cosmetic or the full monty? And, critically, what will be the financial return? Kevin O’Donnell takes
The National Magazine Company is one of the highest profile magazine publishers in the UK, publishing as it does a whole host of famous magazine titles. Lucy Aitken met with its chief executive, Duncan Edwards, to hear his views on the challenges and
We agonise over the right words to sell our titles, and it’s time well spent. Other avenues for copywriting are a complete waste of time, says Andy Maslen, who names and shames three of his particular favourites here.
Ever been at a loss as to what to do with the results of the research on your lapsed subscribers? Anthony Ray has been thinking about the problems surrounding this area and how magazine publishers can improve their processes.
While the most obvious savings to be realised through postal de-regulation are in bulk direct mail, there are a host of other postal services where the liberalisation of the postal market is beginning to have an impact. In the last of the series, Ian
What is the best way to organise your circulation function? Does it matter if your newsstand and subs teams are in completely separate parts of the building? Kevin McCormick argues that, whatever organisational structure you adopt, it is vital that t
With the most recent ABCs being littered with unwelcome minus signs, some commentators have been quick to add magazines to the internet’s long list of media victims. Yet a number of titles posted very positive results and, says Lucy Brunning, it is u
The Chinese economy continues to grow at a phenomenal rate, as does its all-important middle class. There are plentiful opportunities for international publishers, yet UK companies have been relatively slow out of the blocks. Ian Locks looks at the C
US publishers are bracing themselves for yet another showdown with media buyers. Karlene Lukovitz laments MediaVest’s recent announcement, but hopes that it might help bring matters to a head.
For the right product, FFTs can be a highly effective subs acquisition tool. Of critical importance are the list, the message and the process implementation. All need to be spot-on. David Nutt looks at how to put together a successful FFT campaign.
In today’s more environmentally aware world, waste is a hot topic. Furthermore, now is not a good time, for any industry, to be producing more waste not less. Unless we clean up our act, says Jim Bilton, it is only a matter of time before government
Year 1 is not a terribly profitable time for most subscriptions, and that is why years 2 and beyond are so important. Publishers need to have systems in place to intelligently forecast the profitability of a subscription over its full lifetime. Beatr
Shop saves are not new, but, crucially, how many shoppers know about them? And if more did, would magazine sales go up? In 2004, COMAG launched the Just Ask! initiative to raise awareness of shop save schemes. The initiative won an ACE award and was
Launches are the lifeblood of the industry. Aren’t they? In a crowded media environment, a successful launch is harder to pull off than ever before. David Hepworth looks at recent launch activity and what it tells us about the challenges faced by mag
