Magazines: Can online make an industry recession-proof?

A flurry of media coverage, the launch of Condé Nast's new super-glossy magazine, Love, and - despite some big brand falls - news that overall magazine circulation in the UK is up 3.7 per cent, according to February's year-on-year statistics from the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC). Did someone say green shoots?

Not quite: looking at the bigger picture, magazines have shown themselves to be an accurate barometer of the recession so far. Car and home magazines are, unsurprisingly, down (What Car? Used Price Guide - down 30.1 per cent); and every major publishing house, from Bauer to Natmags, saw its stable of magazines lose circulation over the last 12 months.

But if we can't quite see the green shoots, you could at least call it the 'Year of the Niche'. Hobby titles are doing well, with brands having their five minutes of fame including Simply Knitting (up 7 per cent), Angler's Mail (up 7 per cent) and Cycling Plus (up 11 per cent).

Cheap habits, changing habits
Why is this? Last week a magazine colleague had lunch with her contact at department store John Lewis, who said lipstick was selling well. It's a luxury, but an affordable one and at times of belt-tightening, people still want their small indulgences. (For belt-tightening see: Men's Health and Men's Fitness both up; Slimming World, up 6.2 per cent)

Magazines are the same: affordable luxuries and, of course, while you may not be able to afford the designer dress, you still want to dream. 

Magazines give people something to do in a recession. If you walk into WH Smith, its top selling magazine this week is Jamie, Jamie Oliver's new food magazine; the BBC's Easy Cook is up 20 per cent; and Empire magazine, for film lovers is up 4.5 per cent.

News and finance titles, such as The Economist and What Investment, are also showing circulation growth, as people look to absorb credible information about the credit crunch.

But the changes are not all because of the increasing doom and gloom. The decline in the men's magazine market is for those titles which have probably had their day - titles such as Maxim, down a massive 41 per cent, and IPC's Loaded, the original lads mag, down 21 per cent.

Men have been turning away from their brand of babes and bottle for three years now. Intelligence is fashionable again and that's not just because of Obama. Men are buying magazines such as Arena (up 16.4 per cent) and the newly launched Buck, with its strap line of 'fashion, furniture and food'.

It is probably true, however, that the titles with falling circulations all target younger groups who have less disposable income and are more likely to be affected by job cuts. That's certainly the case in the women's weekly market, where women are cutting back on how many magazines they buy.

But it's still the internet, stupid
The value of brands increases in a tightening knowledge economy, because consumers are looking for advice and information from a brand they can trust. That's certainly true in the trade magazine market.

Kieran Long, editor of The Architect's Journal, feels bullish about his brand: "Trade mags are fine as long as they're not too dependent on recruitment revenue. But we have subs revenue. Readers need us more, not less. It's back to what you trust for readers and advertisers."

But perhaps the biggest individual factor outside of the credit crunch is where consumers are looking. The move towards delivery of magazine-branded content on different platforms was, before the recession hit, the number one concern for the magazine industry: how will print survive in the age of the internet?

Isobel McKenzie-Price, editor of Ideal Home magazine, the market leader in the home styling sector, is responsible for IPC's home magazine websites, idealhomemagazine.co.uk; homesandgardens.com and livingetc.co.uk. While her ABC figures are down, she argues that her magazine is as recession-proof as any, and a lot of that is to do with being online.

"Our sites are all growing at a rapid pace - we're up to almost six million page views - and while some of the audience are the same as our print brands, a whole lot more are new people who aren't magazine readers," says McKenzie-Price.

"What's fascinating is that they all love the same things that print audiences love - ideas, ideas and more ideas."

So magazines can no longer be measured simply by quoting their ABC circulation figures. Nowhere is this more relevant than in the men's magazine market. IPC's Nuts, down 13 per cent year-on-year, argues that looking at print circulation is an outmoded way of judging a magazine's value: you have to look at what a title is doing and who it is speaking to, via its TV channel, website and mobile platforms.

"What really works about having two different media is that they complement each other," McKenzie-Price continues.

"The web is often about practical solutions and the boring bits that would be too dull on the printed page. No one really wants to sit down with a cup of coffee and read a magazine article on bleeding a radiator, but online you can click on a video clip and see it being done.

"In reverse, the web really isn't the place, yet, for fabulous opulent images. But it is fantastic if you want to compare 50 different dining chairs. We're confident that even if the market gets tougher, it will revive again - the activity on our websites proves that the passion for homes is growing, not fading."

That sentiment is echoed by Sarah Clegg, managing director of John Menzies Digital, whose Magazinesondemand.co.uk service aims to deliver magazines direct to the desktop.

"To date, the digital magazine platform has struggled to find much adoption," explains Clegg.

"However, in the current climate and the challenging print market, publishers are starting to seriously explore digital publications as an opportunity, rather than being concerned about cannibalisation and a potential threat. When a publisher promotes the digital version of its title online, there is a definite uplift in sales and a correlation between promotional activity and results."

The emotional connection of magazines
Yet the quality of people's experience online will be key to the success of mass market magazines. They have always been aspirational products, cultural symbols we want to associate with and from which we gain personal status. The move online is the natural way forward for magazines, recession or not, but it has to maintain this emotional connection, say the experts.

"The 'emotional' and 'touch and feel' relationship that the consumer enjoys with their print title does and will exist, but the ABC figures show a generally declining market so this is clearly not a prevailing reason for purchase," continues Clegg.

"We are all time poor (and now cash poor) and digital magazines provide convenience, value for money and added functions including search tools and archives, which have huge implications on the way that people interact with content. Publishers need to realise it's the brand and content that add the real value and not the media it's presented on.

"Readers should be allowed to choose how they consume their favourite magazines rather than simply pushing the printed version."

Clegg believes the trend towards online will continue after the recession, making it time the media commentators started talking about the whole picture, not just the ABC.

"It's unlikely there will be any huge general resurgence," she says.

"Whilst this diminishing hard copy readership is sadly inevitable, the investment placed in the fabulous brands and magazines produced in this country can still be maximized simply by digitizing the title. It's time to take the blinkers off and seize what is low risk and could prove a great relief to the publishing industry."

Alex Lockwood is a journalism lecturer at the University of Sunderland specialising in the practice and theory of environmental journalism, and the experience of global environmental change. He writes on environment, journalism and the media at www.alexlockwood.net.

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