As Traditional Media Erodes, Magazines Thrive
If you take a look at all of the media statistics, something rather interesting jumps out. Consumer magazines are thriving. I don't mean online. I am talking about good old dead tree versions.
According to the Magazine Publishers of America, magazine advertising pages climbed to nearly 250,000 pages last year. While they're down from their 2000 high of 286,000 pages, the trend line has been going up. (Advertising pages tally up the total number of pages in a magazine that have advertising on them. They are a general indicator of the health of the magazine publishing industry.)
What's also notable, however, is that the rising tide is not lifting all boats. Time and Newsweek are both suffering as news really moves to the Web. The Washington Post even said recently that the term newsweekly is really moot in this day and age.
So why is it that consumer magazines continue to thrive? I think there are a few reasons. First, the ads have a lot of value. People like to peruse Vogue and GQ for the latest fashions and the ads are part of the experience. Second, I think it's also because magazines are by their nature vertical and they allow people to dig deeper into the subjects that interest them. Finally, a lot of the content is very visual and it's very difficult to create such an tangible and visually engaging experience online. Their increased use of video, however, could change all of that.
The takeaway here for me is that media is often additive. One format does not always replace another.
Small correction. It is actually called Magazine Publishers of America. Good write up.
Posted by: Todd Zeigler | Monday, February 12, 2007 at 03:29 PM
Gracias, fixed.
Posted by: Steve Rubel | Monday, February 12, 2007 at 04:00 PM
This strikes me as somewhat of a self serving study. It's like the Colorado Beef Association telling me that beef is better than chicken...according to "studies". In order to get more advertising pages, wouldn't I merely have to lower the cost of those pages? How does this reflect on ad revenues?
Posted by: Jim Turner | Monday, February 12, 2007 at 04:08 PM
Can you reconcile this study with this blog entry:
http://www.deepjiveinterests.com/2007/02/11/print-publishings-death-knell/
Thanks.
Posted by: Patricia | Monday, February 12, 2007 at 05:50 PM
Is there a breakdown for trade publications? IT trade publications?
Posted by: Alice Marshall | Monday, February 12, 2007 at 07:04 PM
This doesn't take into consideration that many high profile and widely read magazines have had to significantly increase distribution of free subscriptions to increase their publication numbers, in order to attain and retain the advertising accounts.
Posted by: Kevin Davis | Monday, February 12, 2007 at 07:44 PM
Everytime a new media came into the scene, all the others were supposed to die starving. Eventually the new one steals some adv money but adds a lot more. This was for the Radio and later for TV. The Web has undoubtedly a vast impact but probably comparable to the one that had TV.
Posted by: gianandrea | Tuesday, February 13, 2007 at 01:35 AM
Along the lines of gianandrea comment, it might be awhile before traditional media goes away. At some point, won't digital text become traditional?
Posted by: Bob Glaza | Tuesday, February 13, 2007 at 12:05 PM
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Posted by: Andy | Wednesday, October 24, 2007 at 03:26 AM