News Briefs: State of Magazines 2008

Magazine Guru Samir Husni was interviewed on his take of the magazine industry going into 2008, with these comments to say:

"Publishers no longer launch magazines looking for a million readers. The new face of magazines are niche titles that may never exceed 10,000 in circulation," he said.

10,000! That's a tiny number, especially when I work for a publication with 1.75 million readers. Does this mean large titles like mine are destined not to make it, while smaller ones, like city magazines will? City magazines naturally have a small circulation, but they also do well during rich economic times--unlike these...Husni's comments are basically saying magazines can work if you have a very specific mission and readership--and then target a specific, small number of advertisers that are interested in this niche.

Meanwhile, Mark Glaser gets his two cens in:

But the magazine business as a whole remains relatively healthy because of the rise of so many niche publications and the staying power of glossy entertainment news," he said.

Glossy entertainment! As well as these magazines are doing, aren't they today's 'General Interest' pubs in that, everything found in them is older and more selective of the THOUSANDS of gossip sites that have the exact same photos? My bet is in five years, the supermarket pubs are just as dead as Time or Newsweek.