Magazine Industry Overview

The Magazine industry was in its golden years between 1960-2000 as advertising was strong, circulation levels were high, an ad-centric publishing philosophy prevailed and many magazine companies were very proftable. However since then it had also started going down hill. In around 2006 social media became a large threat against magazine companies. This invloving the rise of facebook and the expansion of google. The threat from this was that these websites became serious advertising competitors and strong rivals for consumer attention this then leading to circulation in the US declining by 20%. This all due to the fact of facebook and iPhones and iPads becoming increasingly popular and delivering to audiences magazines, newspapers and books through apps.

Worried about circulation magazine companies shifted consumer orienation as they found men were more likely to go on the web for their information.

Even today there is a ever growing struggle for the magazine compaines. In the first half of 2011 big music (rock) magazines like NME fell 14.3% in sales. Even with The Fly (a free magazine) it fell by 7.2%.

I dont think that magazines will ever be totally torn from existance but it is highly likely that they will keep declining year after year and will eventually turn to maybe 1 or 2 magazines in specific categories.