Research Task 1 : How has the UK consumer magazine industry evolved?

The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted parts of the magazine industry. This event, along with other factors, influenced the businesses’ owners to shift their product to a digitsl medium. In the digital environment, some magazine publications are in competition with Instagram. Other genres of magazine, like news and current affairs, have not been affected by this social media platform. Though print magazines have always been a significant part of media, this medium has seen a long-term decline as the digital native finds online editions and subscriptions a more convenient way to receive news from their favourite magazine publishers.

Some larger publications in the magazine industry no longer consider themselves as part of the industry anymore. In an interview with New York Times, the CEO of Conde Nast, Roger Lynch said that his business is ‘no longer a magazine company’. This is due to the audience’s decreased interest in the magazines with more interaction with their websites and social media. In 2021, a survey by the Professional Publishers Association revealed that 9/10 of respondents no longer consider ‘magazine’ to be an accurate word to describe their organisation. Another CEO, Douglas McCabe, told Press Gazette that the magazine industry ‘has literally changed its definition’ in recent years. He discusses how businesses previously in the magazine industry would now represent themselves as ‘passion businesses, hobby businesses, or audience businesses’ which is completely different to just ten years ago.

Similarly to other publishing sectors, magazines have seen sharp declines in print revenue, with digital revenue having the opposite effect. Plaforms like Google and Facebook (Meta) have also monopolised digital advertising in recent years. The decline in print magazine sales due to Covid-19 is rather significant, falling by 33% from 2019 to 2020. Even if digital sales are higher than print, they fail to compensate for the decline.

There are now fewer magazines in circulation in the UK. In 2000, this number was 1.6 billion while this number went down to just 565 million in 2021. These statistics are based on annual sales of print/digital magazine copies and subscriptions by titles reporting to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Consumer spending on magazines has also shrunk, with 1.4 billion in 2010 and just under 700 million 10 years later. Along with the decreased number of circulation, there are less titles available under ABC. The number of magazine titles reporting to ABC started at over 700 in 2000, and rapidly fell to 558 in 2010 and then 241 in 2021. however, some magazine types have been more impacted than others with men's magazines and music magazines being most affected by the same fate. Their circulations fell by 89% and 90% respectively between the years of 2017 and 2021. Women's magazines still retained a slight amount of their circulation as this figure only fell by 45%. The percentage decline of circulation has also lead to many magazine sectors almost disappearing from existence. This can be due to the availability of more convenient ways to access similar media such as by using Instagram. Social media platforms are a free medium which may deter consumers from purchasing subscriptions as the topics of interest are already being provided to them. One sector that is still more prevalent is the news and current affairs sector, including titles such as The Economist and The Week.