Overview of Magazine Industry

Overview of Magazine Industry

The vital statistics of the magazine industry are that there are more than 8000 titles that are published in Britain. They can be placed into seven categories. Number one is consumer which is general and specialist, these are sold in newsagents and are also available online. Number two is business, trade, professional and B2B for people at work. Number three is customer magazines that organisations give to their customers as a form of marketing. Number four is staff magazines to inform staff about their company. Number five is newspaper supplements; they come free as part of daily or Sunday paper. Number six is part works which is a set number of issues builds up into an encyclopaedia on a specific topic. Lastly number seven is academic journals; these are for university-level discussion of all sorts of arcane topics.

Consumer magazines make up the bulk of the titles for sale in newsagents. They may be general titles that aim to entertain and inform. Examples of these are Loaded, Elle and Radio Times. There are also consumer specialist titles aimed at a specific interest or hobby. Examples of these are Car, Total Film and Gardener’s World. The top four consumer magazine publishers are Bauer Publishing 25%, IPC Media 20%, BBC 7.8% and National magazine company 7.3%. However in October 2011 Immediate Media bought out BBC Magazines.

Today in the UK there are over 3,200 different consumer titles in 1980 there were only 1,383. 1.4 billion Magazines are sold each year it was 1.1 billion in 1970 and 1.2 billion in 1992. 85% of the population reads a magazine. Advertisers spent £745 million in magazines in 2008. Consumers spend £2 billion on magazines annually. An average of 500 new magazines has been launched every year in the past decade. Only 3 in 10 titles survive for more than 4 years.

Top 5 Women’s monthly magazines in 2013 are Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Yours, Woman and Home and Good Housekeeping. Top 5 children’s and Teen magazines in 2013 are Moshi Monsters Magazine, Fun to Learn – Peppa Pig, Fun to Learn – Friends, CBeebies Art and Top of the Pops. Lastly the top 4 Men’s lifestyle magazines are Men’s Health, Nuts, FHM and GQ.