The UK Magazine Publishing Research

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Magazine publishing research industry

The UK magazine publishing industry has had tremendous growth in the recent past. Numerous magazines are available covering on different sectors of the industry. Magazines are read far and wide in the UK with some even being available to online users. They have been used for advertising on various commercial products and services, for job advertisement and also for lost and found properties and people. According to Periodical Publishers Association (PPA) (2009), the term magazine describes a branded, edited content often supported by advertising or sponsorship and delivered in print or other forms. Magazines contain various articles from different authors and are enriched by many advertisements. Many magazines are financed by the price paid for its purchase, the various advertisements they contain or subscriptions by various readers who pay before delivery (Frank, 2002, p.10). Magazines have published either weekly, monthly, semi quarterly or others which are regular.

The production of magazines dates back to 1731 with the edition of The Gentlemans Magazine by Edward Cave (Johnson &Prijatel, 2006, p. 2). According to PPA, in the UK, over 3000 consumer titles and 5000 business tittles are available for circulation with publishers selling an average of 40 million magazines annually to countries other than the UK. Furthermore, there is a launch of over 200 new magazine tittles annually with this industry employing more than 114,000 workers across the UK. On the amount spent on consumer magazines, the UK is the third spender in the whole of Europe. As this statistics indicate the magazine industry has gained much popularity in the 21^st industry due to its major benefits. Magazines have been used to tackle various global issues affecting us like the emission of green house gases and issues of recycling to help protect and conserve the environment (Frost, 2003, p.24). However, this industry has also caused carbon dioxide emissions and noticeable loss of natural habitat due to production of paper from trees (ecofx.org, 2009). These essay analyses key market sectors of the UK magazine publishing industry identifying the relevant and key issues relating to each of the sector.

Magazine industry in the UK

As noted above the media industry has had tremendous improvements and changes aimed at increasing the readership of the various magazines published. There is competition among different publishers trying to out do each other on coverage around the UK. This has led to major developments like electronic access of various magazines through websites and several links after payment of a subscription fee. Various magazines can now be accessed online on eBay. According to Magforum.com website, the history of the first recognized magazine in the UK dates back to 1665 with the publication of Journal des Scavans. It further notes that, during the 19^th century two major magazines were published. These are The Spectator and the Illustrated London News which is still published and was among the first magazine titles to use thorough illustrations and color printing beginning 1855 (Wharton, 1992, p.72). This industry has been faced by major movements of staff from one publishing organization to the other.

A notable example is the movement of Peter Crookston who was the editor of Nova, a womans magazine by IPCs publishers, to edit the magazine of observer newspaper. Paper later on moved to edit customer magazines like Expression, the InterCity and the Heritage today which is owned by Redwood Publishing. Reed (1997, p.64) notes that. the BBC publishers are the biggest player in this industry in the UK although other publishers are gaining control in this industry like the US based Time-Warner which in 2001 gained control of IPC Media which until then was the largest magazine publisher in the UK. Various issues are facing the UK industry and these are; the movement of creative and innovative magazine editors to the US after being lured due to the increasing market for the magazines. The competition the magazines are facing from the newspapers in the UK is huge which is retrogressive to their growth. Compared with the United States, the UK has only 50 magazine tittles which can make a sale of more than 250,000 copies while the US has over 300 tittles (Magforum). The following statistics compare the UK with other countries on the number of magazines and their country sizes (Mckay,2000, p.20).

The magazine industry has faced downfall in number of subscriptions due to economic crunch that was a global phenomena. Various magazine sectors like the business to business and consumer sectors were engulfed by a sort of redundancy as various businesses had minimal advertising to limit their expenditure. However, the future is brighter for this industry as subscription levels rise thus increasing circulation.

Womens consumer titles

Consumer magazines are aimed at entertaining while at the same time informing readers on specific areas of interest and hobbies. They are easily available at bookstores or in news stands. In the UK, consumer magazine market is one of the most stylish and competitive with other countries like the US and France. Despite this, it has been affected lately due to most of the population cutting on their spending power due to the current economic hardships. There have also been reduced advertising budgets by the industry players all over the UK. Womens weeklies and womens lifestyles dominate the consumer market but a report on consumer titles has indicated a contraction of consumer magazine titles lately (NEMS Market research of 2009). This report further observes that there is a current trend of women cutting back on their magazine purchasing in comparison with men. The consumer magazine market was expected to contract further in 2009 by about 3.5% and the same trend is to be followed this year by about 3.5% (consumer market report).

In recent years, womens magazines have had busy times with the publishers launching production of weekly magazine rather monthly or fortnightly. This has encouraged wide spread reading across different ages in the UK. The younger generation provided a ready market for the various consumer magazines but recently there seems to be a change in trend with older generation magazines like those touching on housing gaining much popularity. This can be attributed to the hardships that are currently evident in the young generation. In the future there are hopes of other titles being launched due to the high competition between different industry players like Sunday Times and the Telegraph. This is expected to lower the cost of the magazines to attract the customers and increase sales. The new launches are expected to contain the changing trends in womens beauty industry, home products and services, health care among other issues involving women.

Mens consumer titles

Mens magazines have been produced from the beginning of magazine publishing and they touch on various issues affecting men (Crewe, 2003, p.45). Mens consumer titles have faced a lot of challenges and competition mainly from the mainstream newspapers which cover in details areas of men interest like music and cars. This has left many mens publications dwelling much on pornographic materials which are sensitive for mainstream news agents or those with literary pretensions like the Playboy from the US. Consumer magazines have had a falling trend in the recent past especially due to rise in advertising via electronic channels like the Television or the radios and lately there is a trend by various players to offer free magazines as supplements in newspapers. As information technology becomes more and more embraced, various titles on mens consumer interests like cars, houses and electronic gadgets are expected to be launched with online subscriptions on eBay. As the world becomes a global village, this will increase coverage to all over the world and eventually the print media will decrease.

Business to Business titles

These are magazines that are specialized and mainly targets professionals at work. In the UK, there is the Campaign aimed at the advertising industry, the Press Gazette targets those of us in the journalism industry among others. Most business magazines are for free to readers who are the targeted groups of professionals. Due to this they are mostly financed by the advertising they carry in their colorful pages. Business to business titles may have two types of readership categories. The first is horizontal readership that involves many professional industries being targeted and the second is vertical readership that entails specific readers in a specific industry (Whittaker, 2008, p. 10). Due to the high competition involved with B2B magazines, some publishing authorities face change in management as they are acquired and sold at regular intervals. Normally, B2B titles are published or owned by professional entities like doctors or journalists while contract publishers services may be sought to publish on behalf of the professional body. B2B titles are mostly circulated through controlled circulation which involves sending free copies to qualified professionals. Nevertheless, some magazines are circulated via news agents or bought through subscription. Recently, various B2B websites have been developed which have had a greater impact on readability of these magazines. The print business magazines have been replaced by online publications, for example, Reed which is a leading publisher of B2B magazines has developed a strategy that involves electronic publishing and has gone to the extent selling off the titles that cannot be sold online (Magforum.com). This has led to loss of employment as the print media weakens day by day.

Impact of the recession on the magazine publishing industry

The world has had an economic recession which affected nearly all sectors of the economy. The magazine industry was not left out and had tremendous changes. There has been a slump in advertising in as companies cut on the expenditure budget to maintain profits. Advertising being a major financier for the publishing of magazines has seen some publishers being sold to major corporations that can meet the over head expenses. The other factor is loss of employment to the unfortunate members of the society. This has reduced the buying power of the consumers leading to poor business in the magazine industry. However, there are optimistic prospects for economic recovery which will lead to growth of various sectors with the magazine industry being among them.

Contract magazine publishing

This is the process by which various organizations seek the expertise of various well established publishers to help them in production of mostly business to business journals. They seek either the entire publication process from concept to editorial and design and finally printing and fulfillment or parts of this process (Pipes, 2005, p. 50). Several contract publishers are under marketing or marketing agencies while others are departments of a mainstream business or consumer publishers.

Independent magazine publishing

These are specialized experts who publish magazines solely going through the publication process from concept to editorial and design and finally printing and fulfillment or parts of this process (Morrish, 2003, p.50). They produce and sell their magazines and are most of the times specialized into one sector like business to business or consumer magazines.

Cultural issues and magazine production

The UK has had a rich culture of reading the magazines and news to get information on certain issues. This has gone well with the increase in production of various magazines covering areas of interest like business and consumer news. However, this culture has been changing recently due to a shift towards internet usage which has led to more magazines now being available online via various websites.

Magazine publishing and the internet

The 21^st century has been marked by a rise in internet usage with many homes currently having internet accessibility. This has led to many publications being done online through eBay and other websites. The amount of materials that are printed have reduced as a result of this.

The future of UK magazine publishing

In the future, only publishers producing magazines which cover peoples daily lives, their hobbies and interests will be able to survive. The information should be in readable form and cheap (Renard, 2006, p.120). The UK has embraced internet usage and the future looks bright for those publishers who have availed their issues online. Various magazines can now be accessed via different websites or on eBay hence the reading culture will be enhanced with only a shift towards electronic access (Vasquez,2010, para. 2)

Conclusion

A magazine is a branded, edited content often supported by advertising or sponsorship and delivered in print or other forms. The publishing industry in the UK has seen major growth and a shift towards electronic access. There is competition among different publishers trying to out do each other on coverage around the UK. Various issues are facing the UK industry like the movement of creative and innovative magazine editors to the US after being lured due to the increasing market for the magazines and the competition the magazines are facing from the newspapers in the UK is huge which is retrogressive to their growth. The magazine industry has faced downfall in number of subscriptions due to economic crunch that was a global phenomena. Consumer magazines are aimed at entertaining while at the same time informing readers on specific areas of interest and hobbies. Consumer magazines have had a falling trend in the recent past especially due to rise in advertising via electronic channels like the Television or the radios and lately there is a trend by various players to offer free magazines as supplements in newspapers. Business to business titles are specialized and mainly targets professionals at work. The economic recession has affected the consumer buying power of the UK population leading to their downsizing. The future is bright for the publishers producing magazines which cover peoples daily lives, their hobbies and interests. Finally, a lot of magazines can now be accessed online after payment of subscription fee. There is need to support this sector by visiting this sites and gaining a lot of information that we may find important in our lives.

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