Contemplating the shrinkage factor
Or...when the future is niche...Issue #113
What is the future of print magazines? The conventional wisdom suggests that there will be fewer print magazine titles and that they will have smaller circulations. The category will continue to shrink.
OK, fine. That seems obvious. The opinion makers point to the high costs involved in producing print publications. These costs make print something of a luxury and niche category. Print will continue be expensive and only people passionate about a category will pay dearly to own a magazine about their favorite topic.
There is something to this “conventional wisdom.” Single copies do cost a lot. The average cost for a regular frequency title is generally above $6.99. So, check. The cost of a special interest low frequency magazine is usually above $10.99. Again, check.
I don’t know the national statistics, but I haven’t launched a new title onto the newsstand in a decade with a print order higher than 50K. So, once again, check. But here’s a caveat as my name isn’t Dotdash Meredith, Hearst or Conde Nast. So…
But I think that the conventional wisdom is onto something.
A few months back, I wrote about an opinion piece by former PC World editor Harry McCracken describing the “end” of computer magazines as a category in the US. I thought we were already there, but apparently there were a few holdouts for a little while.
This past week I learned about what is essentially the end of another category. Soap Opera Digest Magazine, will be ending its regular frequency print run and begin a new life as a quarterly. It’s joining the ranks of so many other former big time checkout titles that have either completely gone away or disappeared into “special interest publication” life. There’s more on that below in item #2. In the meantime, consider the following:
In 2010, there were four magazine titles dedicated to TV soaps that had their circulation audited and reported to the Audit Bureau of Circulation (Now the Alliance for Audited Media). Those titles were Soap Opera Digest, Soap Opera Weekly, Soaps in Depth ABC and Soaps in Depth CBS. The first two were weekly. The next two were bi-weekly. Combined, those four titles averaged 1.02million copies in circulation per issue, more than 450,000 of those copies were sold on the newsstand. The total retail value of those copies sold at the newsstand was about $62million per year (based on some back of the envelope calculations). That’s pretty good for a four title subcategory.
Around the same time, a major national chain listed 14 titles in their TV subcategory on a title ranking report.
So, how’d we do in 2023? Only one title shows up in Audited Media’s reporting for the first half of 2023 and four titles on that same chain’s ranking list. The audited title shows total circulation of just under 44,000 copies with only a little over 8500 copies sold per issue on the newsstand.
Of course, there are only three soap operas available on network television today. Shrinking categories have fewer followers. Something that was once mainstream is now niche. And in print, the future, if the conventional wisdom has anything to say about it, is niche.
firstly__Gannett caught using AI generated reviews
I personally didn’t find anything all that surprising in this article with regards to the way Gannett or its affiliates were behaving. However, the fact that someone would lie about the identity of their “writers” is disturbing. Doing something like that tells your audience that you don’t respect them or care very much about them.
In some follow-up, similar types of articles were found at a McClatchy site. McClatchy stated that they have guidelines that are supposed to be followed to prevent AI generated articles from being mislabeled. It’s pretty clear that that did not happen.
A failure to be accountable? Quel scandale.
followed by___Say Goodby to Soap Opera Digest
Like so many checkout dominant publications from the latter part of the last century, this title is being demoted to a quarterly special interest publication (sometimes referred to as a '“bookazine”).
For some context, check out this interesting NY Times article from way back in 1989 to give you some idea of how the “go-go” consolidation era kicked off back way back then and brought us to our present day situation.
Next__Artforum editor is fired for “open letter”
Longtime editor, David Velasco published an “open letter” to the arts community condemning Israel’s response to the Hamas terrorist attack in Southern Israel. The letter was also cosigned by “thousands of artists, academics and cultural workers” and supported the liberation of Palestine. However, according to the publishers, David McConnell and Kate Koza, the said that the post was not “consistent with Artforum’s editorial process.”
Artforum was recently purchased by Penske Media, the publishers of Rolling Stone Magazine.
then__San Antonio Magazine is being purchased by Hearst Corp instead of being shuttered
Eighteen year old San Antonio Magazine was scheduled to be shut down by it’s owners, Open Sky Media (The publishers of Austin Monthly and Texas Music).
Instead, it now looks like the publication will have a new lease on life under ownership by the Hearst Corporation. Hearst also owns the San Antonio Express-News newspaper. It’s not all that uncommon for local city newspapers to also run a city or regional magazine in the market they service, so San Antonio Magazine should be a perfect fit.
Also, check out this intensely cool cover for their September/October 2023 issue. Somebody give this designer an award!
finally__In some sweet news, Bengal India launches their very first dog magazine
This bit of news made me smile so much. Firstly, the title is called Vow Vow, which is perhaps how Bengali speakers pronounce the sound of a dog barking? Then, their description of a quarterly magazine is to call it “trimonthly”. I kind of love that as it moves how a frequency is defined away from a purely financial definition.
As a lover of all things canine, and a volunteer at an animal shelter, it’s also nice to know that this publication is taking root and doing exactly what a magazine is supposed to do: provide information and service to its audience.
I wish Ms. Pal nothing but continued success and a steadily growing list of subscribers.
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Guess what? Our AI is back on line and behaving in an appropriately AI kind of way. So we’ll let our junior AI editor, Felix Charta send you on your way…
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