Magazine Industry Overview

Magazine Industry Overview

The magazine industry has always been a commercially successful and steady business ground in which there has always been a need for. From music magazines to celebrity gossip, people have always been interested in reading the stories and articles about a range of topics but with the increasing use of technology and the seemingly limitless online opportunities, the magazine industry is taking a harsh downward spiral in favour of online publications and blogs.

The marketplace for just music magazines is very big as it ranges from big competitors like NME, Q and Kerrang! to the more underground and unheard of like The Stool Pigeon and Properganda, but they all have something in common which is that the rise in online publications has seriously affected their circulation figures as well as their profits. In an article reported by the ‘Press Gazette’, they reported NME had been badly hurt by their increasing online presence with a 14.3% decrease in circulation within the first half of 2011, which has undoubtedly risen by now. Q magazine had an 10.1% decrease while Kerrang had a slightly better 2.2% decrease, but is still likely to highly effect the business as a whole and the profit margin of the magazine.

The use of social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter is at its all-time high as people are finding it easier to communicate with each other on a various amount of websites. With the increase in use of these types of websites, the magazine business’ themselves have had to increase their online presence as magazines such as NME and Q have Facebook and Twitter profiles in which they report news, which could be one of the reasons why people are not buying magazines as much anymore. Also, the increasing popularity of blogs and blogging websites with social aspects included such as Tumblr have led to an increase in ‘amateur’ music blogs which report on mainstream news as well as unsigned and unnoticed artists & bands. An example of this is ‘tuneage.tumblr.com’ which posts reviews, links to news and a selection of newly released music which it shares with its “our 300,000 strong audience”.

The development of technology has also had an impact. An increasing number of people now have smartphones and Ipads which make it easier to read music news online and through the magazine’s websites while on the move. This also makes it easier to visit a number of music websites and read on all the different news compared to buying a selection of magazines, which is not ideal for someone travelling or for their purse. You could also argue that the economic downturn has also affected the magazine industry as people simply do not have the money to spend on magazines when they have more important things to buy. Magazines are classed to many people as a ‘luxury’ item which they probably don’t need, but still buy for the entertainment purposes however with the recent recession and increasing prices of food and bills, consumers are cutting back on items that they don’t need and find other places where it is free. Many of the major magazine’s websites do not have a subscription fee and the articles are free to read for the general public which provides a cheaper alternative to spending an upward of £2 on a physical copy of the magazine.