93 Magazines Launch in First Half of 2014

New magazine launches again outnumbered titles that were closed by a substantial margin in the first half of 2014, according to MediaFinder.com, an online database of U.S. and Canadian publications owned by Oxbridge Communications.

A total of 93 new magazines launched in the first six months of the year, while just 30 closed -- although the latter group included several historic titles.
 
As in previous years, the biggest category for new launches was “regional interest,” which saw six new print titles launch, including 12th & Broad, a new magazine devoted to Nashville’s creative community, and “craft,” with new titles like Craft Beer & Brewing. Other new launches in the first half of 2014 included Barbecue America and San Francisco Cottages & Gardens.
 
In business-to-business magazines, 15 new titles launched, including IEEE Cloud Computing Magazine, while just five B2B titles closed.
 
Turning to consumer magazine closures, the list of shuttered titles included Diabetic Cooking, Scene (NY), and 13 niche automotive enthusiast titles owned by TEN: The Enthusiast Network, formerly known as Source Interlink Media. The list of closed TEN titles includes Popular Hot Rodding, Rod & Custom, High Performance Pontiac, Custom Classic Trucks, 4 Wheel Drive & SUV, Mud Life, 5.0 Mustang, Modified Mustangs & Fords, Camaro Performers, GM Hi-Tech, Import Tuner and Honda Tuning.
 
Two historic magazines also cut their print publication schedules drastically: Johnson Publishing’s Jet, which folded its print magazine, but will continue to publish an annual special print edition, and Meredith Corp.’s Ladies’ Home Journal, which dropped its monthly schedule and home delivery for subscribers to become a quarterly newsstand-only special interest publication.
 
The new magazine launches come amid continuing declines in print advertising. According to the Publishers Information Bureau, total magazine ad pages declined 4% from 29,745 in the first quarter of 2013 to 28,567 in the first quarter of 2014, the most recent period for which figures are available.

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1 comment about "93 Magazines Launch in First Half of 2014".
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  1. Paul Robinson from Viridian Development Corporation, July 3, 2014 at 6:21 p.m.

    This is the same situation as buggy-whip makers discovered at the turn of the century. They're in an obsolete market. Print journalism is expensive while digital production is becoming cheaper and cheaper. Unless a magazine can get enough subscribers to justify its ad rates, the only other way it can survive is if it's very expensive to cover the cost of a no advertising model. Most subscribers won't pay the full cost to produce a publication. Back in the 1970s it was estimated that the daily newspaper that cost 10c then would cost $2.25 if ads didn't subsidize the cost. It's probably more now, even with subscriptions being more expensive.

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