Come on Vogue, your sales and clients dropped. You are no longer in store and people are tired of always the SAME stars and celebs in the magazines. Vogue is no longer a classy elite magazine and social media took over the fashion world.
We should tell the truth about what is going on in the magazine business. When all are scrolling on Tik Tok and getting their news via Instagram stories, the reality is more complex than the simple “print magazines dying” narrative we keep hearing.
The truth? Print magazines aren’t just quietly fading away – they’re facing a complete transformation, and some are fighting harder than others to survive in 2025.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
They are some pretty brutal stats. Recent data show that weekly print circulation dropped 13 percent and Sunday print circulation dropped 16 percent compared to the prior year. Now here comes the interesting part – while print magazines dying seems like the obvious conclusion, the reality is way more nuanced.
Over fifty of the magazines that were audited by ABC experienced a 10 per cent or higher decrease in their print circulation in 2024. Big magazines suffered tremendous declines: National Geographic (down 27% to 45,671), OK! Magazine (decrease 26% to 37, 615), GQ (decrease 26% to 72, 058), Wired (decrease 19% to 28, 248) and Vanity Fair (decrease 18% to 50, 027).
Anna Wintour’s Shocking Exit Changes Everything
Here’s the scoop everybody was talking about in fashion circles: Anna Wintour is retiring as editor-in-chief of American Vogue after 37 years. This is not some magazine editor leaving her position, but this is Anna freaking Wintour, the woman who has literally become the Miranda Priestly of the real world.
On Thursday, Wintour told the staffers that Vogue will start a process of finding a new head of editorial content, but she will remain global editorial director and chief content officer at Condé Nast. Once the most influential figure in fashion magazines chooses to go off the day-to-day business, then you are sure that something significant is changing.
This news is yet to be digested in the fashion industry. Wintour did not only edit a magazine, she created culture, made and broke careers, and transformed the Met Gala into a billion-dollar cultural phenomenon. Her departure signals that even the most successful print magazines are restructuring for survival.
The Digital Revolution Hits Different
This entire picture shifted when video started being given more attention than anything else by platforms. Meta has been down-ranking news in the feed of Facebook, upsetting many publishers who had grown dependent on referral traffic.
Once it appeared to have no rivals, BuzzFeed is now a lesson to study. BuzzFeed, which was formerly called BuzzFeed News, closed its viral post and video website in April. The company which assisted in shaping the culture of digital media? The market cap of the company stands at less than $35 million – nine years after Comcast-owned NBCUniversal, the parent Company of CNBC, invested in the company at a valuation of 1.5 billion.
The Advertising Budget Massacre
Talking about the elephant in the room, it is advertising money. At the height of this industry, annual print publication ad revenues totaled up to $19.5 billion in the US according to Magna data quoted by Bloomberg. Since then? And it is a gradual drop because those dollars shifted to the Internet.
However, digital is no longer safe anymore. Conventional digital publishers who could be considered the new frontier are also not doing well. All industries are competing over the same small slice of the attention economy.
Some Magazines Refuse to Die
Here’s what’s fascinating: despite all the doom and gloom, print magazines aren’t actually dead. In Australia print magazines sales are up 4.1% in 2023, and once-cancelled publications like Girlfriend are now getting one-off, nostalgic returns to print.
In the United States alone there were 122 new print magazines launched in 2021. That is not how a dying industry should act, is it?
The Premium Strategy
Intelligent publishers are turning on their heads. They aren’t attempting to match TikTok on speed and volume instead of going premium. The print media is also becoming more of a marketing tool in itself: the report states that one of the most successful publications in America today is the Costco Connection, which has a circulation of over 15 million copies every month.
The plan is logical – as long as you can not win the game of digital at the convenience level, win it at the experience level. Turn your magazine into something people want to keep, carry and show.
Why Gen Z Actually Likes Paper
Plot twist: younger readers are driving some of the print magazines revival. Gen Z readers have also been credited with the resurgence of interest in print magazines due to the analog preferences of this cohort of consumers.
There is something soothing about a physical medium after years of digital burnout due to doom-scrolling and endless notifications. When you read actual paper, you cannot be distracted by a notification.
The AI and Publishing Crisis
AI is disrupting all that and magazines are no exception. The use of AI-generated content is being tested by publishers, leading to significant losses of jobs throughout the industry. The UK and the US journalism industry are still experiencing job cuts as companies attempt to determine how to utilize technology without entirely obliterating their editorial forces.
The question becomes: can print magazines maintain their human touch and editorial quality while using AI to cut costs? It’s a delicate balance that most publishers are still figuring out.
Vogue’s Strategic Retreat
Not even fashion bible Vogue is left behind. In 2023 Vogue will be publishing 10 print issues, compared to 11 issues in the preceding 3 years. You know where the industry is going when you are Vogue and you are cutting print issues.
Others like InStyle, Glamour and Self have completely abandoned print. The unification is true and only the best brands are still surviving in print.
Building Brands in the Chaos
This is all very interesting to me as I have ArtistHeat to run. Media is the most brutal it has ever been, but that also suggests that there is new opportunity and voices that can change fast.
The key is understanding that print magazines dying doesn’t mean all publishing is dead – it means the old models are breaking down. Smart creators and publishers are building direct relationships with their audiences instead of depending on traditional distribution methods.
Looking Forward to 2025 and Beyond
The future of print magazines isn’t about death – it’s about evolution. Publications which survive will be those which realize that their role is different. They are no longer all vying to be your first source of news or entertainment. They are fighting to be worth your time, money and shelf space.
The role and circulation of print magazines may be declining, but they are not dead or even dying. They may be regarded as moving into a smaller yet viable space in the media environment.
The magazines that will thrive most successfully in 2025 will be those that accept their position as high-end, edited experiences and will not attempt to race the infinite scroll of social media. They will be more concerned with quality than quantity, depth rather than speed, and write content that is worth the paper it is printed in.
Print magazines aren’t dying – they are only finally discovering what they can actually do well in an online world. And honestly? That is just what the industry could use to survive and prosper in the coming years.
The most intelligent publishers are the ones who are betting on both – digital to create community and print to create something special. That is the future of publishing, and it is quite exciting in my opinion.
