Special Report: Publishing
Welcome to Our Special Report on Publishing
Welcome to the first special report from Direct Listline.
This edition is about magazine publishing, a field that increasingly has veered from general interest products to niche titles.
In this special, we explore the characteristics of vertical magazines and the markets they serve. We also report on trends and offer statistics on readers in individual audience segments.
These reports are designed to provide a snapshot of the field at a given moment. We are planning several more this year.
If you have any comments or suggestions, please contact Ray Schultz, editorial director, at [email protected].
Thanks, and we hope you enjoy the report.
MARKET OVERVIEW
Niche Magazines Rule the Magazine Roost
By Jim Emerson
Have a passion for knitting, fitness or tinkering with cars? If you do, then you may also enjoy flipping through the glossy pages of a publication devoted to your hobby. Or you may enjoy reading about issues and concerns of the groups you have an affinity for and subscribe to a periodical for women, gay men, Christians or African Americans. Forget general interest magazines — we’ve become a nation devoted to the niche.
Everything has become so specialized that the term “general interest” doesn’t apply much anymore in the magazine industry, as virtually every magazine fits in a niche, according to Cristina Santos, spokeswoman for Magazine Publishers of America.
So, of the 5,340 consumer magazines MPA reviewed, most can be called special interest, although MPA refuses to categorize its members’ publications. Some are more specialized than others, of course. In the automotive sector, there are wide-reaching titles such as Motor Trend and Automobile. Drilling down deeper, one finds Truck Trend and Truckin. And peering deeper still, there’s Mustang Monthly and Corvette Fever.
In today’s digital- and database-oriented world, even some general interest publishers are focusing more on niches. Time and Sports Illustrated, for example, both use demographic-driven binding to insert special editorial sections that are tailored to specific subscriber segments. Time has run sections on boating, cooking and gardening, and articles written to appeal just to kids or seniors.
And although there has been an overall decline of 1.9% in readership for nine of the biggest consumer categories (newsweeklies, travel, men’s, business/personal finance, women’s, computer, epicurean, shelter and automotive) between fall 2002 and fall 2003, according to Mediamark Research Inc., some niche segments have grown.
The top 10 magazine growth categories from 1993 through 2003 are health, regional interest, medicine, travel, lifestyle, automotive, management, construction and building, collectibles, and computers and animation, according to the National Directory of Magazines.
One of the fastest growing areas is crafts and hobbies, the MPA notes. The nesting psychology that has prevailed since the Sept. 11 attacks, along with the recession and wars, has perhaps given the greatest boost to the craft and hobbies niche, observers believe. There are 300 craft and hobbies titles — among them, 13 new ones rolled out in 2002.
Another segment experiencing a growth surge is gay and lesbian consumer periodicals. Between 1992 and 2003, 83 titles were launched, bringing the total to 112.
Other large and growing niche magazine sectors are those serving African Americana — from 2000 to 2002 alone, 29 such pubs started up (see Demographic Facts and Figures, below) — and those devoted to collectibles, gourmet food, music, sports and sex.
What special-interest categories are in trouble? High-tech, new media, golf and women’s publications were among the hardest hit during the recession, studies say.
Direct mail remains the primary medium for finding new subscribers and retaining subscriptions. There is, however, a diminishing rate of return for using list overlays and enhancements, as the niches have narrowed down, some list professionals say.
The best strategy for subscription prospecting is to find a list that matches the target, rather than trying to overlay similar data on a less particularized file, they insist. Special-interest lists provide an already defined market, whose readers are more likely to be interested in the offer for a subscription and the advertising within that magazine. Data overlays can be used on more generalized lists to help identify persons within a niche, like finding publications that target senior citizens.
There is no special process for seeking out niche files, list pros say. After all, specialized magazines came about because more lists identifying very specific markets became available.
Response rates for direct mail used to acquire subscriptions declined significantly during the recession. The demise of American Family Publishers, and reduced volume from Publishers Clearing House, also adversely affected response rates. Response from agents fell 60% during 2002.
But recently, rates have improved, according to the CircTrack Consumer Survey 2003 from Capell & Associates in Washington.
Direct mail renewals improved for 40% of the publishers polled, the best performance since 1998. The average response rate for magazines was 3.5% and the conversion rate to paid orders was 2.3% Response for semi-monthly titles was an average 6% with a 2.5% conversion rate. Monthly magazines pulled a 3.2% response and a 2% conversion rate.
E-mail is now used by 37% of publishers for renewals. Sixty-five percent include telemarketing as part of the subscription renewal process. About 45% of publishers use either premiums or sweepstakes to lift response rates. Revenue for house list rentals are suffering. They declined for almost half the publishers surveyed — the worst performance in six years.
Consumers like having both printed and electronic versions of publications available. Some 63% of magazine Web site visitors prefer to read both the printed and online versions.
After visiting a magazine site, 20% of visitors typically end up subscribing to the publication. About 15% of magazines are sold as single copies on newsstands. The rest receive their periodicals as subscribers through any one of an array of direct response methods.
STATS
Demographic Facts and Figures
*More women than men cross the magazine gender divide. Women make up 40% of Esquire’s readership, 37% at GQ and 17% at Playboy. Men comprise only 17% of Cosmopolitan’s readers, 14% at Harper’s Bazaar and 13% at Vogue.
*Readership differences between the sexes sharpen among those who work at home. Men prefer boating and photography titles, while women like home service, parenthood and travel magazines the best. Both work-at-home groups fancy airline magazines.
*Among consumers in general, readership increases with income and education — and television viewing time decreases. Those with graduate or doctorate degrees and incomes above $75,000 are more inclined to read magazines than watch television. The lower the income and education levels, the more likely someone will choose TV over reading a magazine.
*African Americans read more magazines than the overall population and other ethnic groups. More than eight out of 10 blacks read an average of 13.3 issues per month, compared with 9.7 issues per month for all adults. Three-quarters of Hispanics read about nine magazines per month, but this group is generally younger. Asian Americans read about the same number of magazines as the overall population, but Asians tend to be more educated and have higher incomes.
*There are 21 million magazine readers who play a key role as “influentials” — people who influence others to pick up a certain publication. This elite group represents 10% of the most active members of the population. They are thought of as well-connected, well-informed and trusted as word-of-mouth opinion leaders. They read 3.4 magazine titles per month at home, while voicing 25 million recommendations for magazines annually to the general population, which reads about 2.1 magazines a month at home.
*The average reader spends 45 minutes reading each issue of a magazine.
*Roughly 83% of magazine subscribers read at home, while 76% read magazines elsewhere. Popular places to read magazines include the workplace, medical offices, someone else’s home, newsstands or stores, beauty parlors and barbershops, public buildings, airlines and business reception rooms.
