subscription
Got my first subscription copy today… of the Sept/Oct '09 issue.. no more hunting in the bookstores…
Thanks Gene!
Thank YOU, Skip J.
In the next issue (Nov Dec 2009), subscribers get a free DVD of our event. Enjoy and thanks for your support.
There isn’t a Sep Oct 2009 review thread here yet. Maybe you can start one.
Sept/Oct issue
[QUOTE=GeneChing;950387]In the next issue (Nov Dec 2009), subscribers get a free DVD of our event. Enjoy and thanks for your support.
There isn’t a Sep Oct 2009 review thread here yet. Maybe you can start one.[/QUOTE]
You’re welcome Gene! This thread is what got me originally started down this looonnnggg path anyway…
Be glad to start a thread - I’m reading the Yang Lu chan article and it is “explosive” to say the least…
will do
[QUOTE=GeneChing;950387]In the next issue (Nov Dec 2009), subscribers get a free DVD of our event. Enjoy and thanks for your support.
There isn’t a Sep Oct 2009 review thread here yet. Maybe you can start one.[/QUOTE]
You’re welcome Gene! coming up…
Scary
RD is such an institution. 
Reader’s Digest to file for Chapter 11 protection
By ANDREW VANACORE (AP) – 1 day ago
NEW YORK — The publisher of Reader’s Digest, the country’s most popular general interest magazine, said Monday it will file for Chapter 11 protection with a plan to swap a portion of its debt for ownership of the company.
Reader’s Digest Association Inc., owned by the New York private equity firm Ripplewood Holdings since 2007, said Monday it has reached an agreement in principle with a majority of secured lenders to erase a portion of the $1.6 billion they hold in senior secured notes. The lenders will get ownership in return.
The planned filing, which does not include operations outside the United States, comes amid declining circulation, an industrywide advertising slump and large debts.
Reader’s Digest, the monthly magazine founded in 1922 as a collection of condensed articles from other publications, has been searching for a niche as the Internet upends the magazine industry’s traditional business models.
This year’s ad declines saw the closing of several high-profile titles including Conde Nast’s Portfolio, Domino and Blender.
In June, Reader’s Digest announced it would cut the circulation guarantee it makes to advertisers to 5.5 million, from 8 million and lower its frequency to 10 issues a year from 12.
In the second half of last year, the U.S. edition of Reader’s Digest had circulation of 8.2 million, 2 percent above the guarantee to advertisers but 12 percent below circulation a year earlier. Its decision to adjust to rate base suggests expectations that circulation will drop further.
The company said Monday it will skip a $27 million interest payment on its 9 percent notes due in 2017 while it looks to build support among lenders for its restructuring plans.
In a statement, Reader’s Digest CEO Mary Berner said the agreement follows “months of intensive strategic review of our balance-sheet issues.”
The agreement includes $150 million in “Debtor-in-Possession” loans to finance the company during bankruptcy protection. Overall, the company plans to shrink its debt from $2.2 billion to $550 million following Chapter 11. It said the “vast majority” of suppliers will be paid in full under the bankruptcy plan.
The company said it will seek further agreements from lenders and other stakeholders before making a formal bankruptcy filing within a month.
Aside from Berner, all of the company’s board members who have served since Ripplewood’s $1.6 billion acquisition of the company in 2007 have resigned. Two members who recently joined will continue to serve.
This is sad news, however this is the result of the recession we are experiencing .Those that " weather this storm" will be much wiser and stronger.
last print mag standing…
[QUOTE=GeneChing;954973]RD is such an institution. :([/QUOTE]
and also…
"The company said it will seek further agreements from lenders and other stakeholders before making a formal bankruptcy filing within a month.
Aside from Berner, all of the company’s board members who have served since Ripplewood’s $1.6 billion acquisition of the company in 2007 have resigned. Two members who recently joined will continue to serve."
Ah yes, well… you guys may be the only print mag left pretty soon Gene…
Have faith Gene. Even I was moved to subscribed last week to your mag. Though I have to say I absolutely hated Reader’s Rubbish, I mean, er, Reader’s Digest, whatever it is or was.
Thanks for your subscription, zhugeliang
You guys are encouraging me to post more of these industry reports with your subscriptions. And given the way the industry is, that’s pretty easy. There’s not much good news on the newsstands nowadays.
Magazines’ Newsstand Sales Suffered in the First Half
Most Blame Recession, Wholesaler Dispute
by Nat Ives
Published: August 24, 2009
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) – Recession and a dispute with magazine wholesalers combined to hammer many titles’ newsstand sales in the first half of this year – much as publishers worried they would. That’s based on new numbers from many publishers in the lead-up to a big semi-annual report from the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
Reader’s Digest newsstand sales sank 20% from the first half of 2008.
Reader’s Digest newsstand sales sank 20% from the first half of 2008.
Happily for the industry, many magazines rely much more on subscriptions, which seemed to hold up better. Reader’s Digest saw newsstand sales sink 20% from the first half of 2008, for example, but those single-copy sales represent a sliver of its circulation. Subscriptions, comprising 92% of the pie, fell a much more manageable 3%, so Reader’s Digest still exceeded its circulation guarantee to advertisers.
But newsstand copies are a great way to get potential readers to sample a new magazine. Cover prices are much higher than subscription prices. And buyers who then subscribe using the blow-in cards inside are more likely to pay and renew than subscribers from other sources. What’s more, advertisers sometimes view newsstand sales as a measure of vitality. So nobody enjoyed the big declines last year – and nobody wanted to see more.
Unfortunately, many magazines saw just that.
Newsstand sales fell 15% at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, where declines reached 23% at Everyday Food, 20% at flagship Martha Stewart Living, 7% at Body & Soul and 6% at Martha Stewart Weddings. “The entire magazine category reported weakness in retail, single-copy sales in the first half, clearly the result of continued softness in consumer spending,” the company said. “Of the competitive set of titles that we compare ourselves to, the average unit sale decline was 19%.”
At American Media, newsstand sales fell 13%, with declines of 25% at Muscle & Fitness, 22% at Natural Health, 18% at Flex, 17% at Muscle & Fitness Hers, 14% at Star, 13% at Shape and 9% at Men’s Fitness. Natural Health and Men’s Fitness fell short of their guaranteed paid circulation. The two brightest spots: Fit Pregnancy slipped just 3% and Mom & Baby just 2%.
Effects of recession
Did the recession hurt? “For sure – with both disposable incomes strained as well as reduced trips to the supermarket,” said David Leckey, exec VP-consumer marketing.
New York Magazine saw newsstand sales fall 13%, a drop it attributed to the economy and the wholesaler dispute. “Because newsstand sales represent less than 5% of our overall circulation, a 13% dip in sales represents a difference of about 3,000 copies per week,” a spokeswoman said, “a relative drop in the bucket for the company’s overall revenue and sales.”
New York is also hiking its newsstand price to $4.99 from $3.99 in September, a sign of confidence in continued demand for the product, the spokeswoman said. Wenner Media’s Us Weekly lost just 3% on newsstands, while Men’s Journal fell 5% and Rolling Stone dropped 11%.
New York magazine will hike its newsstand price to $4.99 in September.
New York magazine will hike its newsstand price to $4.99 in September.
Rodale reported mixed results to the audit bureau: Newsstand sales sank 10% at Men’s Health, 8% at Bicycling and 3% at Running Times, but they grew 18% at Organic Gardening, 9% at Women’s Health and 1% at Runner’s World. Prevention’s newsstand sales slid 19%, but partly because of a cover price hike.
Most of Meredith’s magazines experienced big newsstand declines, but the company downplayed their importance. The wholesaler disruption contributed to declines at Parents, down 28%, and Traditional Home, down 10%, according to Andy Sareyan, exec VP-chief brand officer at the national media group as well as president of Better Homes and Gardens. Declines of 46% at Ladies’ Home Journal, 35% at Better Homes and Gardens, 30% at Fitness and 24% at Family Circle stemmed not just from wholesaler problems, he said, but also the end of a test program that had increased sales in 2008.
Some gains
“Were it not for those two factors, we were about flat with the prior period on the newsstand, and many of our titles saw gains,” Mr. Sareyan said. “The type of material that our books cover – home, family, personal well-being and so forth – have been categories where there is, if anything, more interest.” Newsstand sales at the company’s More magazine held steady from the year before.
Some titles reported newsstand gains. Saveur’s single-copy sales rose 4% from the first six months of 2008, according to publisher Merri Lee Kingsly. She chalked up the growth to editorial consistency despite the temptation to veer into cover stories on budget living. “We didn’t abandon our audience that has been picking us up for years and follow the economy,” she said.
The Audit Bureau of Circulations, the industry’s dominant circulation monitor, will publish its comprehensive roundup about the first half on Aug. 31.
The Top 25
We’re way out of this league, but the numbers are interesting. I’ve done a little formatting on them for the table cut~&~paste.
[URL=“http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=138718”]24 of Top 25 Magazines Show Newsstand-Sales Decreases in First Half
Subscriptions and Total Circulation Figures Hold Steady
by Nat Ives
Published: August 31, 2009
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) – Newsstand sales took their sharpest dive of the recession yet in the first half of the year, the semiannual report from the Audit Bureau of Circulations revealed today. Single-copy sales, hurt not just by the economy but also a temporary disruption at magazine wholesalers, fell 12.4% from a year earlier, following year-over-year declines of 11.1% in the second half of 2008 and 6.3% in the first half of 2008.
Twenty-four of the top 25 newsstand sellers posted declines in the first half of 2009, according to the audit bureau, including top seller Cosmopolitan, down 7.8% from the first half of 2008. The lone gainer in the top 25 was Real Simple, which posted a 1.2% increase.
Total paid and verified circulation, however, slipped just 1.2% as subscriptions held their ground, gaining 0.6%, and publishers reduced their use of verified copies, which are distributed free in public places such as doctors’ offices, by 3.9%.
Among big magazines (those that report paid and verified circulations over 100,000 copies), 10 of the top 25 posted top-line gains, including the biggest, AARP the Magazine, where overall paid circulation rose 2.8% to 24.6 million.
The biggest top-line gainers included Global Traveler, up 48.3% to 106,654 copies; Off-Road Adventures, up 31.1% to 108,654; Women’s Health, up 29.7% to 1.5 million; Hobby Farms, up 29.7% to 126,270; and Taste of Home Healthy Cooking, up 29.4% to 759,472.
The newsstand damage had been anticipated for a first half whose chief bright spot was somber and temporary: special tributes and extra editions devoted to Michael Jackson.
Top 25 U.S. consumer magazines by total paid and verified circulation
PUBLICATION~6 MONTHS ENDING 6/30/09~6 MONTHS ENDING 6/30/08~% CHANGE
AARP the Magazine~24,554,819~23,893,285~2.77%
AARP Bulletin~24,305,715~24,248,164~0.24%
Reader’s Digest~8,158,652~8,445,916~-3.40%
Better Homes and Gardens~7,634,197~7,651,178~-0.22%
National Geographic~4,708,307~5,061,047~-6.97%
Good Housekeeping~4,630,397~4,668,818~-0.82%
Woman’s Day~3,933,990~3,876,483~1.48%
Family Circle~3,932,510~3,896,088~0.93%
Ladies’ Home Journal~3,842,791~3,844,222~-0.04%
AAA Westways~3,831,215~3,820,529~0.28%
People~3,615,858~3,803,217~-4.93%
Game Informer Magazine~3,601,201~3,498,935~2.92%
Time~3,372,240~3,389,166~-0.50%
Prevention~3,312,624~3,331,080~-0.55%
Taste of Home~3,302,601~3,198,029~3.27%
Sports Illustrated~3,252,298~3,260,964~-0.27%
TV Guide~2,934,969~3,274,187~-10.36%
Cosmopolitan~2,907,436~2,937,861~-1.04%
Southern Living~2,840,241~2,802,444~1.35%
AAA Via~2,783,833~2,824,461~-1.44%
Newsweek~2,646,613~2,737,450~-3.32%
Maxim~2,537,130~2,535,884~0.05%
AAA Going Places~2,521,974~2,547,092~-0.99%
AAA Living~2,458,902~2,445,146~0.56%
Playboy~2,453,266~2,700,653~-9.16%
another one bites the dust…
…make that another four.
Conde Nast pulls plug on Gourmet magazine
Andrew Vanacore, Associated Press
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
(10-06) 04:00 PDT NEW YORK – Conde Nast Publications is closing Gourmet, the nation’s oldest food magazine, and three other money-losing titles as the high-end publisher tries to weather a devastating advertising slump.
In addition to Gourmet, which had a circulation of 980,000 last year, the publisher is closing Modern Bride, Elegant Bride and Cookie, a parenting magazine. Earlier in the year, it killed publication of Portfolio, a business magazine, and Domino, a lifestyle title.
“We’re all stunned, sad,” Gourmet’s editor, Ruth Reichl, wrote in a post on Twitter.
Consultants from McKinsey & Co. have been helping the publisher, known for elegant publications and high costs, identify ways to cut its expenses. Despite Gourmet’s large audience, the magazine has suffered one of the worst ad declines of any popular title. Its ad pages were down 50 percent in the second quarter from the year before, according to the Publishers Information Bureau.
Conde Nast, run by billionaire S.I. Newhouse Jr., publishes such magazines as Vogue, the New Yorker and Wired and is a unit of privately held Advance Publications Inc. The company’s remaining 19 magazines also include one on food, Bon Appetit, which has a larger circulation than Gourmet, at 1.4 million. Bon Appetit’s decline in ad pages in the second quarter was only slightly less steep, at 40 percent.
Conde Nast spokeswoman Maurie Perl said the roughly 180 employees of Gourmet, Cookie, Modern Bride and Elegant Bride will leave the company with severance packages this week.
Gourmet, revered by many culinary aficionados, was launched in 1941 by Earle R. MacAusland as “the magazine of good living.” It was known for more than just recipes: It dived into extended discourse about travel, wine and food, such as the 2004 piece in which David Foster Wallace argued against the practice of boiling lobsters to death.
Now, Conde Nast said, Gourmet’s brand will live on in books and TV programming. It also plans to continue publishing Gourmet recipes on Epicurious.com.
Magazine consultant Martin Walker said closing Gourmet makes financial sense because Bon Appetit should be able to pick up many of the magazine’s subscribers and advertisers. Many advertisers were trending toward food titles with a more affordable sensibility anyway, he said.
As Modern Bride and Elegant Bride close, a third Conde Nast magazine, Brides, will increase its frequency to monthly instead of every two months.
Print is an awesome form of media.
obviously! it’s been around this long!
In our lifetimes, it will always be serviceable.
People will always want to hold a book, a magazine or some other form of reading material.
Newspapers? Not so much. Running huge presses and huge distribution hubs to service a daily newspaper is a bit much in the day and age of digital. TV started to kill that quite a while ago and the internet and more tv and radio is killing that off, but people still like to take a dump and read the paper. lol Or, have a coffee. anyway…
If smaller print centers were set up on a network that would make distribution completely local, with a lot less waste will be the next step in the industry. Or partnerships B2B style that will see advertising covering distribution fees in localized regions using sub contracted print shops.
Final point, in our lifetimes, print will be around and as you are now a niche to begin with, you only need to maintain the quality of content to compete.
You got the web part covered. 
good point David,
I recently traveled by plane from Sacramento to Oregon. There are many magazines for sale with a big selection to choose from at the airports going both ways. I spent some time watching and they sell well. Fewer newpapers are being offered but they sell.
I agree with David, magazines are here to stay.Some will fall but in time they might be back.
The body count
2009 (so far) +259-383 = -124
2008 +335-525 = -190
Mag Bag: 383 Magazines Closed Jan-Oct.
by Erik Sass, Thursday, October 15, 2009, 3:11 PM
A total of 383 magazines have closed in the first nine months of 2009, compared with just 259 new titles launching. This continues the trend of the last couple of years, when more magazines closed than launched, according to MediaFinder.com, a property of Oxbridge Communications. Conversely, the number of closures in 2009 was smaller than 2008, when 525 titles closed and 335 titles launched.
However, the casualty list in 2009 included considerably more major titles than 2008 – and the year isn’t even over.
Big titles that met their demise this year include Gourmet, announced in October; Cookie, in October; Southern Accents, in August; Vibe, Nickelodeon in June; Portfolio, Blender, Best Life Travel & Leisure Golf, and Figure in March; Hallmark Magazine in February, Domino, Teen, Wondertime, Country Home in January.
The categories that saw the most closures included regional interest, where 31 magazines folded; business, 14; and lifestyle, 13. On the positive side, several categories saw a number of new launches, including – ironically – regional interest, with 15 new magazines, including Maine Magazine and The 45th, focusing on northern Michigan. The food category saw 14 new launches, including Edible Queens. Health and fitness saw 13 new launches, and the home category also got 13 new titles.
Mediafinder.com also noted that 64 publications gave print editions the ax, but maintained an online presence. Still, the ratio of magazines migrating to Web publication versus magazines shuttering completely is smaller. This suggests that online-only status isn’t a viable business model for most print publishers.
Health and fitness saw 13 new publications, a good sign. The world is " shaking the fleas" off it’s back. The depression - recession is having profound results as we pounder through this mess. When " the fat lady sings" Tai Chi Kung Fu will be a winner.
Cut $100 million
I can’t even fathom these kinds of numbers in publishing…
October 29, 2009, 5:22 pm
Time Inc. to Cut $100 Million; Extensive Layoffs Are Expected
By Stephanie Clifford
Signaling that worse times are ahead for magazines, Time Inc. is expected to announce next week that it will cut $100 million from costs, including another big round of layoffs.
The timing is coordinated with the third-quarter earnings announcement from its parent company, Time Warner, sources said. That is scheduled for Wednesday morning.
Time Inc., the publisher of magazines like Time, Fortune, and People, has already cut costs drastically: a year ago, it announced it was dismissing 6 percent of its work force, or about 600 people.
But that was apparently not enough to make up for revenue declines. The $100 million in costs is expected to come largely from layoffs, said sources, who asked to remain anonymous as they were not authorized to discuss the matter.
Michael Nathanson, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company, said that he expected third-quarter revenue at Time Inc. would fall about 19 percent, to $900 million.
“For the year, we’re at about $3.7 billion, and this company had done almost $5 billion as late as 2007,” Mr. Nathanson said.
Since 2004, Time Inc. has cut about $800 million in costs, Mr. Nathanson said.
Over all, Mr. Nathanson said, he expects Time Warner to post earnings of 54 cents a share, well up from the 30 cents a share it posted in the third quarter of 2008.
Time Inc. has been cutting costs over the last several years. Since 2007, it has shut down magazines including Business 2.0, Cottage Living, Southern Accents and Life, which it had revived as a newspaper supplement. Last week, Fortune announced that it would no longer be published every other week, and would drop its frequency to 18 issues a year, from 25. A stricter expense-account policy has been in place for some time, and some magazines have decreased the weight of the paper they use.
A number of Time Inc. employees are covered by a union contract, which mandates severance in case of layoffs. Employees of Time, Sports Illustrated, People, Money, Fortune and Fortune Small Business are covered by agreements with the Newspaper Guild of America, said Bob Townsend, local representative for the guild.
Covered employees at those magazines are eligible for severance packages in a layoff, of two weeks’ pay for every year of employment, with a cap of 52 weeks’ pay. Longtime employees get a bonus, with 20-year veterans getting an additional eight weeks’ pay, and 25-year employees an additional 10.
Mr. Townsend said that the Guild was usually notified in advance of layoffs, but it had not heard anything yet. “We have not been told there are going to be any layoffs next week,” Mr. Townsend said.
Dawn Bridges, a Time Inc. spokeswoman, declined to comment.
The layoffs and cost-cutting follow moves at competitors. Forbes is in the midst of dismissing about 40 to 60 of its editorial staff, and most Condé Nast magazines are reducing their budgets by about 25 percent, which has included handfuls of layoffs at many of its magazines.
Mediafinder.com also noted that 64 publications gave print editions the ax, but maintained an online presence. Still, the ratio of magazines migrating to Web publication versus magazines shuttering completely is smaller. This suggests that online-only status isn’t a viable business model for most print publishers.
The problem is that it’s really hard to monetize your internet offerings. I know I’d like to find a good way with the media company I manage http:www.JTV.tv, but the money just doesn’t seem to be there. The sad trend is that Advertisers pay only a fraction of what they’d pay on the hard copy and people don’t seem to be interested in paying for online content that they used to have to subscribe to in order to receive.
I wish I had the answer because I think it’s sad that we’re losing all of our newspapers and magazines.
pay for computer work
[QUOTE=MightyB;970482]The problem is that it’s really hard to monetize your internet offerings. I know I’d like to find a good way with the media company I manage http:www.JTV.tv, but the money just doesn’t seem to be there. The sad trend is that Advertisers pay only a fraction of what they’d pay on the hard copy and people don’t seem to be interested in paying for online content that they used to have to subscribe to in order to receive.
I wish I had the answer because I think it’s sad that we’re losing all of our newspapers and magazines.[/QUOTE]
Ahhhhh welllll… my son assembled one of those first 4K kits in the 70’s and always wanted to be a programmer. He got a degree as an architect with CAD, and spent decades building up computers for folks - and websites - and writing for programmers - and couldn’t make a living at it ever. After turning 40, he’s finally got a good job - but in a plant where his CAD background is good and his ability to program is very beneficial. However, the plant makes products, not software or computers…
He spent at least 20 years trying to get folks to pay him good money for programming and/or computer work , and it never happened for him.
The key issue is… everyone he worked for had this same problem, no one wants to pay much - or anything - for computer related stuff…
At my age, I will always want something in print over reading it on a screen. If something is important enough to read that I’ll pay something for it, I’ll download the pdf and print it off and then read it at leisure. To me, stuff on the screen is work, and at 5 it’s shut off, or sooner.
Younger folks - 40 and under - will stay up all night reading a screen - every nite - but they will be less likely to pay for stuff then we are. Rightly or wrongly, the world has come to accept computer stuff as a given, like water or air, necessary to life but free or close to it… for better or worse, Wii and the other game producers have established the value of computer stuff at their level…
just my 2 cents worth…
We will not doubt get both.
hope
Many poeple will never give up print, there will always be the need.