Declining sales do not mean the end for glossies. More platforms mean better ways of connecting people with their passions
Challenging times lie ahead for magazines. The Audit Bureau of
Circulations figures published last month made grim reading. Sales of
celebrity titles, such as Heat, Hello! and Closer have plummeted,
squeezed out by celebrity websites and the Daily Mail's sidebar of
shame. Weekly women's consumer titles and Nuts's miserable year-on-year
sales figures (-29.7%) merely confirmed the downward spiral. Even NME
stalwarts seem to be abandoning their weekly fix (down 16.6%).
But these figures are only a partial reflection of what is really going on. The industry trade body, the Professional Publishers Association,
released its first combined digital and print circulation chart
alongside the traditional ABC figures and its CEO Barry McIlheney says
that for many titles, such as Conde Nast's GQ and Future's technology
magazine, T3, a combined figures is a truer reflection of how the
industry is faring.
