800 Magazines Launch This Year

Technology has made an impact on the magazine industry in more than one way. Digital media, of course, if often looked to as a huge detriment to the industry, particularly when trying to sell print ads. Yet advances in technology and digital media have made it possible for magazines to print smaller runs and niche titles and find an enthusiastic and highly targeted audience.

“Magazines, it seems, are far from fossilized. They’re still alive and kicking, and then some,” notes Sally Herships in Marketplace.

She quotes Samir Husni (aka Mr. Magazine) as saying that more than 800 new titles have launched in the past 12 months. Many, Husni notes, are annuals, book-a-zines or highly specialized titles rather than mass market. And that’s okay.

“Magazines aren’t dead, they’re just different,” explains Husni. “New technology allows for smaller runs and more specialized titles…”

Admittedly, it is a challenging time for magazines, both in terms of securing advertising dollars and in leveraging digital media to a publisher’s best advantage.

“While magazine audiences are growing online and on other digital platforms, the loss of advertising dollars that were once a mainstay of print has been hard to make up,” Herships says, quoting Sid Holt of the American Society of Magazine Editors.

“Those digital dimes haven’t replaced those print dollars yet,” Holt said. But at the same time, he notes, magazines are adapting.

“In order for a magazine now to be successful it has to carry its shared passion between reader and publisher — be it guinea pigs or eyelashes — across platforms,” Herships continues.

As we all continue to seek that multi-platform balance, one thing remains clear, according to Andrea Marker-Kick of Media Associates: Print remains a prominent platform for luxury goods and services.

“After all, it’s very hard to smell a sample fragrance strip through the screen of your iPhone,” she notes.

The continuing appeal of print and the struggles that advertisers are facing in making their digital ads worth the cost leave the field open for innovative publishers and the titles they are creating. It’s about finding your passion, telling your story, and connecting with your tribe in print. Clearly, with this many new titles being launched, the passion and the product are evolving in positive ways.