The magazine industry is fascinating. All those proposed launches that never get launched, launches that get ditched within an issue of being launched, and launches that "industry analysts" say will never work and that then take off to applause from "industry analysts" who say it was obvious all along that there was a gap in the market. Indeed, magazine editors are wonders at gap-finding or, at least, wonders at convincing us that gaps exist.
I often say that magazine owners long ago discovered what "mass market" newspaper owners have only recently realised: selling a single media product to the mass is so last century. Television and radio audiences have fragmented or, to be more positive, segmented. But magazines have been selling to segments of the population for ages, both here and in the United States.
That's why there are so many magazine launches, because human beings don't stand still. They breed. They grow through various stages, and develop different interests. The segments are enormously fluid. Anyway, they're often unaware of their shared interests and need some stimulation to recognise them (example: the rise of men's magazines).
But an interesting article by Philip Stone suggests that US magazines are facing up to the fact that print is no longer the medium of choice for Americans. Despite the inexorable move to the screen the Magazine Publishers of America reports that 262 magazines were launched in the US in 2006, a 2% increase over the year before. "What the figures don't say", writes Stone, "is how really tough it is out there these days."
He then details how various publishers - such as Time Inc, General Motors, and Dennis Publishing - are coping, or not coping with the strain. Most notable of all, Hachette Filipacchi has now consigned several of its magazines, such as Elle Girl, Shock and Premiere, entirely to the net. Yet Premiere still has a print circulation of 492,498. As Stone notes, many magazines would love those figures.
Then he points to the the increasing importance of video. Three owners - Hachette, Hearst and Rodale - have secured deals with a company called Brightcove to create online video channels. Owners believe video will attract a large audience of consumers and therefore appeal to the advertisers who are deserting their printed magazines.
There are lessons here also for newspaper owners too. About the inexorable rise of internet use. About segments. About video. About the need to invest. And about the need to be flexible. It's exciting, isn't it.
