A total of 47 new business-to-business titles launched in 2014, compared to 20 new titles in 2013, while 27 B2B titles ceased publication in 2014, up from 14 titles closed in 2013.
Notable consumer magazine launches in 2014 included Town & Country Travel, California Sunday Magazine, CNET magazine, and Eat This, Not That! The list of magazines that ceased publication includes Vibe, Diabetic Cooking, Macworld, newspaper-distributed title USA Weekend, and a number of niche automotive publications owned by Source Interlink, including titles like Popular Hot Rodding and Rod & Custom.
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Two historic magazines also cut their print publication schedules drastically in 2014: Johnson Publishing’s Jet, which folded its print magazine, but continues 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 figures for closures listed above are down sharply from the depths of the recession: according to MediaFinder.com a total of 433 magazines folded in 2009, while 526 folded in 2008.
Despite this, it became harder to judge the overall health of the magazine industry in September of this year, following the decision by the MPA –The Association of Magazine Media and the Publisher’s Information Bureau to no longer publicize figures for print ad pages. Elsewhere in the print universe, the Newspaper Association of America stopped reporting revenue figures for U.S. newspapers in 2013.
Magazines are a boom to Globe Trotters like me. It just keeps you engaged and informative as well. Nice to see 190 new magazines that have recently come up. I love reading magazines through my smart-phone using the free Magzter App. Digital magazines has boosted up growth opportunities for this industry. The additional features like interactive audios and videos embedded in the digital version of magazines makes reading a wholesome experience. I read it on the fly by just downloading the Free Magzter app on www.magzter.com
As a former media planner, I've only recently shed my "stack of magazines in every room" habit. With the advent of services such as Next Issue Media and Zinio, I now actually prefer the interactive (tablet, not smartphone) reading experience and convenience of having back issues readily available. That said, I've noticed a worrisome trend towards shorter, more shallow content. Great content still makes the difference, no matter in which format it is consumed.