What's happening in consumer magazines?
By The Team 23 May 2010.
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“Why do some magazines thrive in a recession and others bite the dust?”
The UK’s consumer magazine industry has seen off a couple of recessions since it first blossomed into a big business in the 1960s and 1970s. It’s learned a lot about how readers change their habits and loyalties in tough times, and they’re lessons worth knowing whatever type of audience your talking to.
Most vulnerable are the ‘also-buys’ – magazines that pick up sales around a market leader but are often the first to be dropped by cost-conscious readers. Publishers strive even harder in a recession to establish their title as the sector’s no 1. Readers look for that authority and confidence when the world is making them feel uneasy.
If you’ve watched the newsstands over the last 18 months you’ll have noticed magazine front covers becoming busier. The number of cover lines rises in tough times as way of demonstrating a title’s value to its reader. Look how much there is for your £2.50.
And they become more practical and down to earth focusing on real life, useful benefits. There’ll always be the high end, exotic fashion magazine breaking the rules because it can, but most mid-market, large circulation titles will be working very hard to prove they can make a real difference to their readers’ lives.
UK publishers have been quick to respond to the tough economy, and it’s paid off. Despite the squeeze on readership and advertising the UK magazine industry is holding its own while America has seen many more high profile title closures.
