Magazine industry overview

The magazine industry has a massive audience reaching out to millions of people worldwide. Why magazine companies are losing sales so rapidly? Some of the biggest names like Q losing as much as 10% of its circulation. Nearly all of the magazine companies in the industry have released figures showing that they have had losses in circulation similar to these yet still millions of people worldwide are talking about these magazines, so how are they still getting their audience? The answer is simple, the internet, the internet has given magazines a chance to become useful again, people use things such as iPad’s and iPod’s to read magazines quickly and easily off the internet, this means a major cut down in sale of actual paper magazines yet the magazine is still being read by people globally. Not only are the magazines using the internet to sell their product they are having massive events that they sponsor and they use things like radio and TV to keep their product being well known so people still find a use in these products. Many people still feel a need for magazines, they often have interviews and offer things that you cannot find anywhere else, the only problem being that with the internet, only one person has to buy the copy with the exclusive interview with the latest star then post it on the internet then the whole globe can read it and not need to buy the magazine, so how are they still being sold? Many people find it easier to just hold a magazine which they can flip open and read rather than finding things on the internet, often people are excited by the prospect of the free items which the magazines give away. With smaller magazines relying on advertisement to fund its existence, the magazine industry is likely to find itself with a lot less magazines available to the public, this should actually help the larger magazines to keep its audience and gain others. Some of the loyal customers to these magazines may be people that generally enjoy magazines and when they go out of business will look elsewhere to find something similar this will mean that whilst the smaller magazines go bust the larger magazines should enjoy a steady increase in total circulation. Larger magazines don’t rely solely on their advertisement, albeit this is important for magazines for income. Companies that are trying to advertise their product will have an even greater need to do this in the current climate due to the lack of business, this gives opportunities for magazine companies to really overprice their advertisement slots and make a lot of money this way.