Over the past few months and years, a number of popular magazines have revived their print versions, and entirely new titles have been launched. After a slump owing to the pandemic, there now appears to be room for new print magazines once again. But hybrid forms of catalogs and magazines, referred to as “megalogs,” are more and more often being used in sales communication.
Most notably, global fashion magazines, interior design magazines and even local newspapers are celebrating a comeback. One prominent example is “
ELLE Australia”. Four years after its final edition, the fashion magazine is returning to the print market this year with two issues. Four issues are already planned for 2025. Jane Huxley, CEO of Are Media, publisher of ELLE in Australia, sees two main reasons for this step: the sustained brand strength of magazines in economically difficult times and the response of consumers to the “digital flood” of information. Nicky Briger, General Manager Fashion and Beauty at Are Media, adds: “Print is seeing a resurgence globally, especially in the luxury and fashion space. So we’re thrilled to be bringing back the much-loved magazine – something tangible to have, hold, read and leaf through.”
Print on the doormat
Fashion journalist Alexandra Zagalsky explains why the fashion industry in particular is increasingly turning its focus back to print: “Online shopping has become increasingly time-consuming, which confounds the click-to-buy convenience that we all initially fell for. There’s too much choice. Search for a “black dress” on Net-a-Porter and over a thousand results come up.” And Lee Cooper, Creative Director of luxury knitwear brand WoolOvers, adds: “A beautiful book landing on your doormat is often more powerful than being inundated with emails, social advertising, and invasive SMS texts.”
Five years ago, legendary British music magazine “
NME” discontinued its print edition in favor of an online-only concept, returning with a two-month print issue last year. “Print has always been a cornerstone of the NME brand,” emphasizes Holly Bishop, Chief Operating & Commercial Officer of NME Networks.
Totally new magazines are also coming out. According to consultancy “Wessenden Marketing”, around 163 new titles were launched in Great Britain in 2021. Studies carried out by media consultant and journalism professor Samir Husni show a similar pattern in the US, where 122 new magazines popped up in 2021. In his opinion, “change is the only constant” also applies to the publishing market, and following this philosophy, there will continue to be room for new magazines in the future. If a trend manifests itself, generally one or more magazines are launched that take up and cover the subject in all its facets.
Focus and success in niches
Though new publications of magazines are often geared to very different topics, most of them share commonalities: They’re generally niche-oriented, appear in small runs – for the most part only quarterly or semi-annually – and they rely on sales revenue and not ad revenue, which is reflected in their high retail price.
But according to Husni, this has a commercial benefit, as it enables the magazines “to focus much more on their audience and get away from the business of selling the audience to the advertiser.” In many ways, print magazines are transforming into curated niche products with their business models.
Talking with German TV station “
ndr.de”, media and communication specialist Stephan Weichert declares that many newspapers will disappear from the market over the next ten years due to high printing costs and delivery aspects, but “the situation is different for magazines, which boast a different reading quality and delivery quality. Consumer magazines or special interest magazines, for example – they still work well in print.”
When asked how to develop a new magazine to still have a chance on today’s market, Weichert replies: “I think good pictures, good design, high-quality features and maybe some light reading still go down well. On the other hand, well-written long texts produced with high journalistic standards work too. The “
Die Zeit” weekly newspaper, which still records good sales, is a good example of this.”
Programmatic printing
There’s now also a trend emerging towards hybrid forms of catalogs and magazines, commonly referred to as “megalogs.” But retail and mail order business especially strongly rely on this form of customer communication, as German mail order company “OTTO” emphasizes. The all-encompassing mammoth catalog was discontinued, but OTTO still relies on light versions of catalogs tailored to segmented consumer preferences. Smart catalog marketing today doesn’t work without technology, asserts Dr. Nicolai Johannsen, VP Consumer Interactions, at OTTO. “With the help of data forecasts, we determine range preferences, the affinity for print and the likelihood to purchase of users and decide based on this whether and what print format is suitable for a customer. The next step involves personalized ads, such as a postcard with custom product recommendations or tailored, seasonal catalogs. Instead of a scattergun approach, we use data-driven analyses and scoring models that assist us in deciding whether or not a print advertisement is used.”
And so there’s still hope that this tentative comeback becomes a strong, lasting one for the magazine market.