Regional Publishing International 52
USA
Sustainable improvements?
The future shape of the mass-market maga- averaged over 1 million units-per-issue. In close to 50%. They have been under 40%
zine distribution channel remains uncertain, fact, one magazine, TV Guide’s average was for all of the last decade, and while they have
as in fact is the shape of the entire US maga- 8.3 million. Two others were selling around inched higher since bottoming out at 33% in
zine industry, and perhaps even the broader 5 million, two more over 3 million, and an- 2003, today’s 36% figure is not exactly some-
landscape of media. other two were better than 2 million. Last year, thing to boast about (the figure did improve
only five averaged more than 1 million news- to 38% for the first half of 2007). Improving
In broad strokes, American magazines are stand units-per-issue, and not one of them ex- efficiencies are a much talked about topic; re-
heavily dependent upon advertising, which ceeded 2 million. However, for the rest of the tailers complain about it and publishers, na-
traditionally provides more than 50% of their magazine publishing world, the environment tional distributors, and wholesalers all claim
revenues. For many of the most successful and has not changed that much. In 1987, 116 ti- they can do something about it. However,
most well known titles, the ad share is consid- tles averaged more than 100,000 single copy from this jaundiced viewpoint, it appears that
erably higher. In this decade, the rise of the sales, and in 2006, the number was 108. At most major publishers are more concerned
Internet has scrambled the traditional media the 50,000 level: 1987, 179 publications; last about capturing as much sale as possible in
mix for many advertisers, and print media, year, 177. Almost all of the business’s losses order to guarantee their ad rate bases, and if
newspapers and magazines, has been the most over nearly two decades have come at the ex- lower efficiencies are the price of that, then so
severely impacted. Publishers, who are strug- pense of a few very large sellers. For the vast be it.
gling to deal with the new realities of advertis- majority, the opportunities for achievement The changes in the distribution channel have
ing, may seem to be somewhat distracted in are about the same. Additionally, the number increased the complexity of the North Ameri-
their efforts to cope with circulation issues, be of magazine titles available on the newsstand can newsstand market radically for publish-
they subscriptions or single copy. However, it is estimated to have doubled during the past ers. The increasing strength of retailers, who
is not disingenuous to claim that, in light of a 20 years to more than 5000. even into the early 1990’s were at best only re-
very unsettled ad market and a subscription Still, while the performance of most maga- gionally dominant, has brought new levels of
business that has been devastatingly disrupted, zines, solely measured in terms of unit sales, complexity in terms of costs and manpower
that newsstand is the steadiest, most reliable, has not changed substantially, much else is to the publishing equation. When the chan-
if not the most lucrative, leg of the traditional different. As late as the mid-1980’s, single nel was more or less controlled by wholesalers
three-legged magazine revenue stool. copy sales retail sell-through figures were still (as late as 1995, more than 300 wholesalers
After a lengthy period of generally depressed
single copy sales (down 28%, 1996 to 2001),
annual unit sales have risen, albeit by small
amounts, in each of the last three years and in
four of the last five years. Many observers feel
that the improved performance, or perhaps
more properly the stabilization of the news-
stand market, is merely the success of a single
category, celebrity weeklies, that is masking
an otherwise desperate sales environment.
However, magazine retail sales history dem-
onstrates that overall numbers have always
been skewed by the performance of a handful
of magazines, in fact probably more so than
they have been in the past few years.
The most significant change in mass-market
magazine retail sales has been the disappear-
ance of the super-selling titles. Twenty years
ago, 1987, annual retail unit sales were 2.192
billion. Last year, they were 1.449 million,
which means that they have fallen nearly 34
% since then. That same year, 15 magazines
AAU07_2722_Inhalt.indd 52U07_2722_Inhalt.indd 52 008.11.2007 13:51:39 Uhr8.11.2007 13:51:39 Uhr
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