Come on Vogue, your sales and clients dropped. Vogue is no longer a classy elite magazine.
Let’s cut straight to the chase – everyone’s been whispering (or shouting) about the supposed death of magazines for years now. “Print is dead!” They declare passionately while browsing their Instagram accounts. But is that really the case? In this piece, one have to wonder if this signifies the end of glossing pages or if this is not something we have not yet seen it all.
I have watched this change in the industry like a hawk and I am not ashamed of it because clearly all is float like observing an ex on face book (am guilty). And let me tell you, the reality about magazines is way more nuanced than the obituaries would have you believe.
The Numbers Don’t Lie (But They Might Exaggerate)
Look, I’m not going to sugarcoat it – traditional magazine circulation has taken a nosedive that would make Olympic divers jealous. Print advertising revenue has plummeted faster than my motivation to go to the gym after New Year’s resolutions wear off.
Sources have it that print magazine advertising revenues have reduced to more than half in the last ten years. Large players have withdrawn their renowned print products or minimized print frequency to some extent. Do you still recall the time when Glamour stated that they would be ceasing the print magazine in a monthly basis? That was 2018, and other cities like Mumbai, Nagpur, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai also joined them.
But here is where it becomes more interesting, while general print magazines are in decline, specialized magazines are on a rise. Which brings me to…
The Rise of the Specialty Magazine
Plot twist! While general interest magazines are gasping for air, specialty publications are thriving like that one plant I haven’t managed to kill yet.
In fact, there are more ‘real’ single subject specialist magazines today than there were 10 years ago. These are not the puddle of dull documents people used to flick through; they are rather beautiful objects that readers treasured and store.
For instance, consider the case of ‘Kinfolk’ magazine, which was published in 2011, and ‘long considered the death of print’, and then it aimed for the minimalist design and promoted the slow living. Or what they call ‘Delayed news reported to be three months behind the actual event, this depth is not found in online media.
What most of these publications are doing is not merely hanging on by a thread; they are commanding flagship prices radius at $15-$25 per issue and developing niche followings. Daily, they are affirming the assertion that people don’t read printed material, rather printed information is changing into something more valuable.
Digital Doesn’t Have to Be the Enemy
The thing is that all good magazines have stopped perceiving digital as an enemy that must be defeated but more like an ally that can be used to their advantage.
It is worth noting that few successful magazine brands of the contemporary society are strictly print mediums; they are media brands. They use social media as a way of community building, websites for dissemination of emergent news, podcast for extension of storytelling, and print for what consumer view as a luxury, the feel of holding a magazine in their hands.
This is how Condé Nast has revolutionized Vogue from being merely a print magazine. Their Youtube has garnered tens of millions of views ( throwback to 73 Questions), and their social media accounts keep them active in between). Today the print magazine is an insignificant part of a vast universe of possibilities.
Why We Still Need the Physical Experience
Me personally have never felt the kind of pleasure one could have while closing a magazine after reading an article as one gets when doing it online. A PC, telephone, or tablet will never be able to replace the haptic sense of fulfilling something one’s hands can only apprehend the feeling of that in a tangible manner.
Research supports this up when it comes to reading since it creates spatial cues in our memory which the turning of pages give. Also, there is no need to worry about the battery, one’s phone, notification popping up in the middle of a chapter or a book ad on the internet of the shoes one bought once and now the site thinks one is stalking them.
Magazines fill the need in the endless stream of options that this algorithmic reality provides. They plead, “We chose the most desirable content, presented it aesthetically and presented it to your convenience.” That is why we are seeing that editorial curation is an increasingly important interest in today’s world, not something that we should abandon.
The Environmental Elephant in the Room
Let’s bring some attention to the bin in the corner – print magazines are not exactly a model of environmental responsibility. A certain product such as paper itself, printing and distribution have impacts on the climate that are discomforting to those readers who are sensitive to the environmental factor.
Yet, the latter is not the case with many modern magazines as they are already trying to overcome this problem. Some magazines like the ‘Positive News’ production is done on recycled paper and the ink used is vegetable based. Some are going for carbon-neutral printing or taking measures such as providing extended subscription periods to lower the effects of transportation.
Of course, it goes without saying that digital is not costless to the environment either. Running those server farms that feed our digital habits utilizes energy in a way that I go through caffeine on a Monday morning.
The Future Looks… Different
So are magazines dying? Indeed, I don’t think they are dying, no, they are simply morphing into something else, like some other form of the new media butterfly out of the cocoon of the traditional journalism.
Looking at the future, it seems that magazines have a little chance to be weeklies targeting the low-end market shelves in supermarkets. It’s in:
- Quarterly or biannual premium issues that readers keep on coffee tables
- Community-centered publications that connect like-minded enthusiasts
- Brand-published magazines that bypass traditional advertising (hello, Airbnb Magazine)
- Limited-edition print specials from primarily digital outlets
Consider “The California Sunday Magazine” which started in 2014 and was later shut down in 2020 but before it folded it had been receiving multiple National Magazine Awards. But do you know what? They continue to release occasional special issues in print format because of its effectiveness as a format.
What Artists Can Learn From This Shift
If you’re an artist or creator trying to navigate this changing landscape, there’s plenty to learn from how magazines are adapting:
Quality over quantity is winning. The examples of such print magazines are the “Juxtapoz” that still exist and develop focusing on the high-quality content and design of the magazine that online media cannot offer.
Sub professionals and CVEs know that there is strength in numbers but being in line with the community is better. Artist-run publications like “Beneficial Shock!” focus on building loyal audiences through the production of content to very niche target market rather than the general market.
Multi-platform thinking is essential. Of particular interest is analysing where “Pitchfork” puts its focus and energy – not as just an online magazine but a web-based outlet that has social media networks, music festivals and print editions into account with relation to each other as a unified system.
The Last Word (For Now)
So, are magazines dying? The honest answer is: some are, but others are being born. The magazine world is facing a great filter that’s killing off the weak and uninspired while creating space for innovation and specialization.
One must remember that modern teens want to have something that finally created as a complete product, and that is tangible, and print magazines still have this to offer to the consumers. As with most story forms, there ought to be an introductory part, a middle and a final one. There’s intentional design. There’s permanence.
In the context of virtual environments, in the context of a world in which everything is extended indefinitely ad infinitum and wears out in the blink of an eye, the potentiality of print might be precisely that. No, magazines are not yet through – they have become even more intriguing.
And, of course, it is what we expect from the social media in fact? Less quantity, more quality. Less noise, more signal. Less scrolling, more savoring.
Well, whatever it is that you don’t seem to have a problem with that? I don’t anyway. So, now allow me to go to pay my subscriptions subscriptions.
