Print publishing death watch

[GeneChing]

We're way out of this league, but the numbers are interesting. I've done a little formatting on them for the table cut~&~paste.

24 of Top 25 Magazines Show Newsstand-Sales Decreases in First Half
Subscriptions and Total Circulation Figures Hold Steady
by Nat Ives
Published: August 31, 2009

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Newsstand sales took their sharpest dive of the recession yet in the first half of the year, the semiannual report from the Audit Bureau of Circulations revealed today. Single-copy sales, hurt not just by the economy but also a temporary disruption at magazine wholesalers, fell 12.4% from a year earlier, following year-over-year declines of 11.1% in the second half of 2008 and 6.3% in the first half of 2008.

Twenty-four of the top 25 newsstand sellers posted declines in the first half of 2009, according to the audit bureau, including top seller Cosmopolitan, down 7.8% from the first half of 2008. The lone gainer in the top 25 was Real Simple, which posted a 1.2% increase.

Total paid and verified circulation, however, slipped just 1.2% as subscriptions held their ground, gaining 0.6%, and publishers reduced their use of verified copies, which are distributed free in public places such as doctors' offices, by 3.9%.

Among big magazines (those that report paid and verified circulations over 100,000 copies), 10 of the top 25 posted top-line gains, including the biggest, AARP the Magazine, where overall paid circulation rose 2.8% to 24.6 million.

The biggest top-line gainers included Global Traveler, up 48.3% to 106,654 copies; Off-Road Adventures, up 31.1% to 108,654; Women's Health, up 29.7% to 1.5 million; Hobby Farms, up 29.7% to 126,270; and Taste of Home Healthy Cooking, up 29.4% to 759,472.

The newsstand damage had been anticipated for a first half whose chief bright spot was somber and temporary: special tributes and extra editions devoted to Michael Jackson.

Top 25 U.S. consumer magazines by total paid and verified circulation

PUBLICATION~6 MONTHS ENDING 6/30/09~6 MONTHS ENDING 6/30/08~% CHANGE

AARP the Magazine~24,554,819~23,893,285~2.77%
AARP Bulletin~24,305,715~24,248,164~0.24%
Reader's Digest~8,158,652~8,445,916~-3.40%
Better Homes and Gardens~7,634,197~7,651,178~-0.22%
National Geographic~4,708,307~5,061,047~-6.97%
Good Housekeeping~4,630,397~4,668,818~-0.82%
Woman's Day~3,933,990~3,876,483~1.48%
Family Circle~3,932,510~3,896,088~0.93%
Ladies' Home Journal~3,842,791~3,844,222~-0.04%
AAA Westways~3,831,215~3,820,529~0.28%
People~3,615,858~3,803,217~-4.93%
Game Informer Magazine~3,601,201~3,498,935~2.92%
Time~3,372,240~3,389,166~-0.50%
Prevention~3,312,624~3,331,080~-0.55%
Taste of Home~3,302,601~3,198,029~3.27%
Sports Illustrated~3,252,298~3,260,964~-0.27%
TV Guide~2,934,969~3,274,187~-10.36%
Cosmopolitan~2,907,436~2,937,861~-1.04%
Southern Living~2,840,241~2,802,444~1.35%
AAA Via~2,783,833~2,824,461~-1.44%
Newsweek~2,646,613~2,737,450~-3.32%
Maxim~2,537,130~2,535,884~0.05%
AAA Going Places~2,521,974~2,547,092~-0.99%
AAA Living~2,458,902~2,445,146~0.56%
Playboy~2,453,266~2,700,653~-9.16%

[GeneChing]

...make that another four.

Conde Nast pulls plug on Gourmet magazine
Andrew Vanacore, Associated Press
Tuesday, October 6, 2009

(10-06) 04:00 PDT NEW YORK -- Conde Nast Publications is closing Gourmet, the nation's oldest food magazine, and three other money-losing titles as the high-end publisher tries to weather a devastating advertising slump.

In addition to Gourmet, which had a circulation of 980,000 last year, the publisher is closing Modern Bride, Elegant Bride and Cookie, a parenting magazine. Earlier in the year, it killed publication of Portfolio, a business magazine, and Domino, a lifestyle title.

"We're all stunned, sad," Gourmet's editor, Ruth Reichl, wrote in a post on Twitter.

Consultants from McKinsey & Co. have been helping the publisher, known for elegant publications and high costs, identify ways to cut its expenses. Despite Gourmet's large audience, the magazine has suffered one of the worst ad declines of any popular title. Its ad pages were down 50 percent in the second quarter from the year before, according to the Publishers Information Bureau.

Conde Nast, run by billionaire S.I. Newhouse Jr., publishes such magazines as Vogue, the New Yorker and Wired and is a unit of privately held Advance Publications Inc. The company's remaining 19 magazines also include one on food, Bon Appetit, which has a larger circulation than Gourmet, at 1.4 million. Bon Appetit's decline in ad pages in the second quarter was only slightly less steep, at 40 percent.

Conde Nast spokeswoman Maurie Perl said the roughly 180 employees of Gourmet, Cookie, Modern Bride and Elegant Bride will leave the company with severance packages this week.

Gourmet, revered by many culinary aficionados, was launched in 1941 by Earle R. MacAusland as "the magazine of good living." It was known for more than just recipes: It dived into extended discourse about travel, wine and food, such as the 2004 piece in which David Foster Wallace argued against the practice of boiling lobsters to death.

Now, Conde Nast said, Gourmet's brand will live on in books and TV programming. It also plans to continue publishing Gourmet recipes on Epicurious.com.

Magazine consultant Martin Walker said closing Gourmet makes financial sense because Bon Appetit should be able to pick up many of the magazine's subscribers and advertisers. Many advertisers were trending toward food titles with a more affordable sensibility anyway, he said.

As Modern Bride and Elegant Bride close, a third Conde Nast magazine, Brides, will increase its frequency to monthly instead of every two months.

[David Jamieson]

Print is an awesome form of media.

obviously! it's been around this long!

In our lifetimes, it will always be serviceable.

People will always want to hold a book, a magazine or some other form of reading material.

Newspapers? Not so much. Running huge presses and huge distribution hubs to service a daily newspaper is a bit much in the day and age of digital. TV started to kill that quite a while ago and the internet and more tv and radio is killing that off, but people still like to take a dump and read the paper. lol Or, have a coffee. anyway...

If smaller print centers were set up on a network that would make distribution completely local, with a lot less waste will be the next step in the industry. Or partnerships B2B style that will see advertising covering distribution fees in localized regions using sub contracted print shops.

Final point, in our lifetimes, print will be around and as you are now a niche to begin with, you only need to maintain the quality of content to compete.

You got the web part covered.

[SIFU RON]

good point David,

I recently traveled by plane from Sacramento to Oregon. There are many magazines for sale with a big selection to choose from at the airports going both ways. I spent some time watching and they sell well. Fewer newpapers are being offered but they sell.

I agree with David, magazines are here to stay.Some will fall but in time they might be back.

[GeneChing]

2009 (so far) +259-383 = -124
2008 +335-525 = -190

Mag Bag: 383 Magazines Closed Jan-Oct.
by Erik Sass, Thursday, October 15, 2009, 3:11 PM

A total of 383 magazines have closed in the first nine months of 2009, compared with just 259 new titles launching. This continues the trend of the last couple of years, when more magazines closed than launched, according to MediaFinder.com, a property of Oxbridge Communications. Conversely, the number of closures in 2009 was smaller than 2008, when 525 titles closed and 335 titles launched.

However, the casualty list in 2009 included considerably more major titles than 2008 -- and the year isn't even over.

Big titles that met their demise this year include Gourmet, announced in October; Cookie, in October; Southern Accents, in August; Vibe, Nickelodeon in June; Portfolio, Blender, Best Life Travel & Leisure Golf, and Figure in March; Hallmark Magazine in February, Domino, Teen, Wondertime, Country Home in January.

The categories that saw the most closures included regional interest, where 31 magazines folded; business, 14; and lifestyle, 13. On the positive side, several categories saw a number of new launches, including -- ironically -- regional interest, with 15 new magazines, including Maine Magazine and The 45th, focusing on northern Michigan. The food category saw 14 new launches, including Edible Queens. Health and fitness saw 13 new launches, and the home category also got 13 new titles.

Mediafinder.com also noted that 64 publications gave print editions the ax, but maintained an online presence. Still, the ratio of magazines migrating to Web publication versus magazines shuttering completely is smaller. This suggests that online-only status isn't a viable business model for most print publishers.

[SIFU RON]

Health and fitness saw 13 new publications, a good sign. The world is " shaking the fleas" off it's back. The depression - recession is having profound results as we pounder through this mess. When " the fat lady sings" Tai Chi Kung Fu will be a winner.

[GeneChing]

I can't even fathom these kinds of numbers in publishing...

October 29, 2009, 5:22 pm
Time Inc. to Cut $100 Million; Extensive Layoffs Are Expected
By Stephanie Clifford

Signaling that worse times are ahead for magazines, Time Inc. is expected to announce next week that it will cut $100 million from costs, including another big round of layoffs.

The timing is coordinated with the third-quarter earnings announcement from its parent company, Time Warner, sources said. That is scheduled for Wednesday morning.

Time Inc., the publisher of magazines like Time, Fortune, and People, has already cut costs drastically: a year ago, it announced it was dismissing 6 percent of its work force, or about 600 people.

But that was apparently not enough to make up for revenue declines. The $100 million in costs is expected to come largely from layoffs, said sources, who asked to remain anonymous as they were not authorized to discuss the matter.

Michael Nathanson, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company, said that he expected third-quarter revenue at Time Inc. would fall about 19 percent, to $900 million.

“For the year, we’re at about $3.7 billion, and this company had done almost $5 billion as late as 2007,” Mr. Nathanson said.

Since 2004, Time Inc. has cut about $800 million in costs, Mr. Nathanson said.

Over all, Mr. Nathanson said, he expects Time Warner to post earnings of 54 cents a share, well up from the 30 cents a share it posted in the third quarter of 2008.

Time Inc. has been cutting costs over the last several years. Since 2007, it has shut down magazines including Business 2.0, Cottage Living, Southern Accents and Life, which it had revived as a newspaper supplement. Last week, Fortune announced that it would no longer be published every other week, and would drop its frequency to 18 issues a year, from 25. A stricter expense-account policy has been in place for some time, and some magazines have decreased the weight of the paper they use.

A number of Time Inc. employees are covered by a union contract, which mandates severance in case of layoffs. Employees of Time, Sports Illustrated, People, Money, Fortune and Fortune Small Business are covered by agreements with the Newspaper Guild of America, said Bob Townsend, local representative for the guild.

Covered employees at those magazines are eligible for severance packages in a layoff, of two weeks’ pay for every year of employment, with a cap of 52 weeks’ pay. Longtime employees get a bonus, with 20-year veterans getting an additional eight weeks’ pay, and 25-year employees an additional 10.

Mr. Townsend said that the Guild was usually notified in advance of layoffs, but it had not heard anything yet. “We have not been told there are going to be any layoffs next week,” Mr. Townsend said.

Dawn Bridges, a Time Inc. spokeswoman, declined to comment.

The layoffs and cost-cutting follow moves at competitors. Forbes is in the midst of dismissing about 40 to 60 of its editorial staff, and most Condé Nast magazines are reducing their budgets by about 25 percent, which has included handfuls of layoffs at many of its magazines.

[MightyB]

Mediafinder.com also noted that 64 publications gave print editions the ax, but maintained an online presence. Still, the ratio of magazines migrating to Web publication versus magazines shuttering completely is smaller. This suggests that online-only status isn't a viable business model for most print publishers.

The problem is that it's really hard to monetize your internet offerings. I know I'd like to find a good way with the media company I manage http:www.JTV.tv, but the money just doesn't seem to be there. The sad trend is that Advertisers pay only a fraction of what they'd pay on the hard copy and people don't seem to be interested in paying for online content that they used to have to subscribe to in order to receive.

I wish I had the answer because I think it's sad that we're losing all of our newspapers and magazines.

[Skip J.]

Originally Posted by MightyB

The problem is that it's really hard to monetize your internet offerings. I know I'd like to find a good way with the media company I manage http:www.JTV.tv, but the money just doesn't seem to be there. The sad trend is that Advertisers pay only a fraction of what they'd pay on the hard copy and people don't seem to be interested in paying for online content that they used to have to subscribe to in order to receive.

I wish I had the answer because I think it's sad that we're losing all of our newspapers and magazines.

Ahhhhh welllll...... my son assembled one of those first 4K kits in the 70's and always wanted to be a programmer. He got a degree as an architect with CAD, and spent decades building up computers for folks - and websites - and writing for programmers - and couldn't make a living at it ever. After turning 40, he's finally got a good job - but in a plant where his CAD background is good and his ability to program is very beneficial. However, the plant makes products, not software or computers......

He spent at least 20 years trying to get folks to pay him good money for programming and/or computer work , and it never happened for him.

The key issue is... everyone he worked for had this same problem, no one wants to pay much - or anything - for computer related stuff.....

At my age, I will always want something in print over reading it on a screen. If something is important enough to read that I'll pay something for it, I'll download the pdf and print it off and then read it at leisure. To me, stuff on the screen is work, and at 5 it's shut off, or sooner.

Younger folks - 40 and under - will stay up all night reading a screen - every nite - but they will be less likely to pay for stuff then we are. Rightly or wrongly, the world has come to accept computer stuff as a given, like water or air, necessary to life but free or close to it.... for better or worse, Wii and the other game producers have established the value of computer stuff at their level.....

just my 2 cents worth....