Lock in a year of Digiday+ for 35% less. Ends May 29.
On the eve of the Audit Bureau of Circulations report on magazine newsstand sales, a New York Times editor tried to find the last “best” remaining magazine newsstands in the city. Perhaps emphasising the slow death march of printed magazines, he found few that offered variety and depth beyond the big publications. Indeed, the ABC’s figures for standalone sales are dismal: down 9.6 percent from last year. Single-copy sales are big revenue drivers for publishers (hence the analog dollars) and the loss in sales has not yet been subsidized by the 70 percent growth of digital subscriptions.
And for all the growth of digital, there is a bit of a self-inflicted wound here beyond the newsstand. Instead of innovating, magazines often just port content from its print pages to its online (or tablet) home, not offering readers anything unique. These digital replica editions more than doubled from 2 million to 5.4 million, representing a scant 1.7 percent of total magazine circulation. Contrast the porting philosophy to newspapers which, for the most part, are adapting and providing extra content to its readers. Of course the biggest issue is that magazines have been giving away its content for free on the Web for years and getting people to pony up cash for what they can read for free is a fool’s errand.
This is a classic case of the innovator’s dilemma. Magazines have been hostage to their print legacies — and it appears time to pay the piper.
More in Media
WTF is back button hijacking?
Google is cracking down on “back button hijacking,” which some publishers use to offset declining referral traffic and monetization pressure.
Why Amazon and YouTube pitched operating systems, not just TV inventory at this year’s upfront
Negotiations over identity, infrastructure, AI-driven buying take place as much as programing.
The Economist prepares for a two‑track internet: one for humans and one for AI agents
The Economist is testing agent-readable versions of content that already sits outside its paywall, as it prepares for “two versions of the web.”