It might be considered a moot point by now, but digital magazines are experiencing growth while print is on the decline. According to the latest ABC audit, the average circulation of magazines fell on average by 5% in the first half of 2015, while digital circulation rose to 409,414 in the period, up 21% year-on-year.
What is interesting about this latest report is that magazines such as Empire and Men’s Health are hampered by both tough competition and also shifting consumer attitudes toward their content from online-first to online-only. That is to say, people are getting entertainment and movie news from websites such as the Hollywood Reporter or IGN on a daily basis and not Empire.
The other major component to the audit has to do with publishers starting to be successful with turning their print titles into premium advertising channels. Cosmo, for example, is still a key magazine brand and alongside its print version, has successful events such as Fash Fest and high profile awards like Ultimate Woman of the Year. The magazine has also started to double down on social media, such as Facebook where clickbait articles on sex are shared millions of times a day. They also have over 1.3 million Twitter followers – all of which are unaudited audience extensions.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.