The latest circulation figures must come as unsettling reading for magazine publishers. An industry whose glamour once spelled luxurious lifestyles for three generations of models, editors and publishers is now in terminal decline. From the glossy pages of high fashion to adult entertainment, the print magazine was our portal to a world of sexuality and sophistication, yet today even some of its most successful pioneers such as Larry Flynt (Hustler) and Felix Dennis (Maxim) have foreseen its demise. The advent of the iPad and the iPhone enable digital media to pervade even our mobile, wireless world, and a virtual universe of image banks and shopping opportunities await the online consumer anytime, anywhere. Given the array of riches afforded by the Internet, the print magazine now seems an archaic, not to mention environmentally unfriendly way of distributing content. According to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) figures, the misery for print publishers continues unabated. Magazine circulations for the second half of 2009 maintained their sharp downward trend. Sales of Glamour, one of the most popular fashion titles in the UK, fell 5.9% to just over 515,000 copies, while leading rival Vogue fared little better, sliding 4.5% to a circulation of just under 211,000. Even the evergreen Cosmopolitan slipped 6.4% to 363,000 copies, suggesting a market-wide malaise. It was bad news across the board for the leading men's magazines, with FHM suffering a sharp 15.2% fall in circulation to 231,235 copies, while that of its nearest rival GQ slid 8% to 84,465. The doors of the chasing pack may not remain open for very much longer. Sales of IPC's Loaded declined almost 21% to fewer than 71,000 copies, while the circulation of arch rival Front has now dropped below 42,000, quite a collapse from a peak of 150,000 at the turn of the Millennium. As for the appropriately named Bizarre magazine, its sales slumped almost 30% to fewer than 29,000 copies, and it may not be very long before it too becomes a footnote in publishing history. The cult of the weekly 'Lad's mag' seems to have reached its climax, with the circulations of Nuts & Zoo tumbling by 24.4% & 29.6% to 176,835 & 99,554 copies respectively. Such figures from flagship titles make for grim reading in the board rooms of publishing houses like Bauer and IPC. The alarms have sounded on the luxury liners of the print magazine industry, and the only lifeboats available, with no discernable assets to sell, come in the form of an exodus to digital publishing. A dark cloud looms over the entire print magazine sector, with only sales of domestic and celebrity titles remaining unscathed. |
As though the latest figures were not damaging enough, public spats have erupted between GQ & Esquire and Vogue & Harper's Bazaar, over the 'legitimate' practice of bundling discounted copies together with other leading titles. Although the Audit Bureau of Circulations and advertisers generally accept this practice, it does however serve to distort the apparent popularity of magazine titles. Take for example upmarket men's magazine Esquire which boasts a circulation of just over 59,000 copies. Of this grand total only 17,500 were purchased at full price from newsstands, 6,000 were sold in discounted multi-packs, and over 9,000 were distributed free of charge. In contrast its principal rival GQ sold over 64,000 of its recorded 120,000 distribution at full price from retail outlets, while more than 17,000 were sold by way of discounted subscriptions, and over 14,000 were given away through bulk and free distributions. So much for the veracity of circulation figures, as publishers are effectively having to slash prices and give away large numbers of freshly printed magazines simply to preserve advertising revenues. It would seem that the collapse in circulation figures is merely the tip of the iceberg that has struck the luxury liner of the magazine publishing industry.
The market doldrums are by no means confined to a single sector of the print magazine industry. Sales of men's, fashion and adult titles have all been eroded by the tsunami of free online content. A vicious cycle has ensued, with diminished circulations leading to lower page charges for advertisements, fewer advertisers and therefore less money to pay for premium content. This in turn has led to thinner publications and less attractive magazines. Many publishers have already made the transition from print to digital, although turning pixels into paychecks is not as straightforward as paid copy once was. Digital publishers have themselves been challenged by the realization that most consumers are unwilling to make the minimum credit card payment of several dollars to access an online edition, let alone a single page, and this is due to the painfully slow evolution of micropayments. So far it seems that financial institutions have resisted the creation of a viable micropayment system to monetise Internet content, much to the frustration of online newspaper and magazine publishers. Given the former popularity of library photocopy cards and the ease with which they could be recharged with a 'virtual currency' to obtain copies of printed content, it is difficult to fathom why such a simple and straightforward system has so far not been applied to the Internet. Not only would a micropayment system make the transition from print to digital publishing instantly viable, it would avert the agonizing death of an industry reeling from devastating declines in its circulations.
Those magazines which made a successful transition from print to digital have so far survived on a diet of advertising and subscriptions, with many existing print titles seeking to follow suit. The move from print to digital is however far from a simple switch, not only because it employs a range of different technologies, but because not all traditional buyers of print magazines are ready converts to digital editions. For many, the concept of paying a subscription for a magazine that does not sit conveniently on the coffee table is alien, and to date many online titles have become a somewhat promiscuous marriage with E-commerce and advertising, offering content which often bears only a passing resemblance to their print editions. Today, although many print magazines have evolved an online counterpart, these usually do not appear to replicate the content of their sister editions, possibly for fear of further undermining print circulations. This is far from the only adjustment traditional publishers have had to make, as advertisers and publishers alike have depended upon the ABC to serve as an impartial body for the monitoring of circulations. While the sales of print copies may be relatively easy to track, online subscriptions may easily be shared through password dissemination, and Internet traffic figures are readily manipulated, even though they provide a far more detailed breakdown of which pages and ads are actually viewed or even clicked on. It is understandable that many advertisers, once the very foundation of the prosperity of the print magazine industry, are reticent to spend large sums online without a demonstrable impact upon their sales.
The present downturn in magazine sales cannot be explained solely by a mass consumer migration from print to digital editions. Despite increasing Internet use, online versions of men's magazine titles, like their adult relations, also suggest a downward trend, albeit not as dramatic as that seen for their print editions. The proliferation of more audacious adult content sites such as 'Bangbros' and 'Brazzers' has impacted heavily upon the traditional hunting ground of Playboy, Hustler and Penthouse, and these iconic trademarks are losing territory to more explicit online content providers.
A similar trend has eroded the appeal of online versions of the cult men's magazines of the nineties. Maximonline.com and FHM.com (below chart level) have seen their market shares impacted not only by a growing taste for more risqué rivals like twistys.com, but also by the emergence of exclusively online model magazines such as AskMen.com and bullz-eye.com.
The offices of women's fashion and lifestyle magazines must seem more cheerful places, as in this sector the traffic trends point north. Leading online fashion magazines bettyconfidential.com (+52%), self.com (+31%), bellaonline.com (+27%) and allure.com (+5%) have all enjoyed a rise in their market reach (% of all Internet traffic), although their arch rival glamour.com did see a quarterly dip of 13% in what was otherwise an upward trend.
The Internet is not only transforming the way in which we access, store and browse for information, it is also radically shifting the nature of published content itself. Readers are now increasingly interacting with content, voting for change, leaving comments and giving publishers instant feedback as to the popularity of a given image or article. Not only does this make content truly current, but changes in the publishing landscape mean that multiple media streams now converge upon the end user, who in effect actively filters them by clicking and voting. Blogs, reviews, logins and online shopping make content truly interactive, transforming a world once controlled by editors into live information streams. New generation wireless Internet portals such as iPhones and iPods add to the mobility and accessibility of the 24/7 content culture. As information feeds are now generated on demand by the end user rather than filtered by publishers, so the special interest magazine is fast evolving into a niche social network funded through subscriptions and advertising. In a virtual world in which content is actively selected by users and provided by syndicated photographers and writers, the publisher's role is transformed into that of platform provider.
Before we nostalgically mourn the golden age of the glossy magazine, let us not forget the immense impact it has had upon our environment. Hundreds of millions of copies are printed every month, clearing forests and turning the ignition keys of thousands of juggernauts. The print magazine industry annually consumes hundreds of pounds of paper pulp for every reader, and burns fuel both directly through haulage, and indirectly by powering offices and print presses. Much of our congestion and emissions are caused by fleets of vans and trucks as they transport thousands of tons of printed matter to and from magazine kiosks and shelves across every town and city in the Western hemisphere. Countless millions go unsold or unread, further adding to the environmental impact the industry has had upon the planet. Even legendary magazine mogul Felix Dennis, founder of Dennis Publishing, has taken to planting trees and ancient woodlands in his apparent determination not to leave a legacy of deforestation.
As the era of electronic publishing comes of age so micropayment systems, markets and information technologies will adapt to the vast bandwidths and server banks that will be required. Facebook alone was reported to have spent some $200 million just upgrading and installing new servers in 2008. Our lifestyles will also be radically transformed by a brave new world of wireless information. As our office and portable devices become ever faster and lighter, so we will all become interactive 'nodes' on a global network of consciousness, constantly receiving and contributing information to the digital world. We will all be bloggers, columnists and critics, adding our collective opinion as to what's hot and what is not in the world of online sales and entertainment. Our tastes will no longer be dictated by elite commentators or editors. Established restaurant, entertainment and media critics will lose both their influence and their gratuities, as almost every new event or opening will become subject to mass online debate and voting frenzy. Whether a recent model shoot, a film premiere or a new restaurant opening is a hit or a miss will be relayed to the online public within hours, and online media will become the pulse of an ever more liberated and opinionated consumer. The age of digital media is upon us and its future is bright.