Is print making a comeback?

Is print making a comeback? -->

Since the launch of the internet back in 1991, there has been a continued decline in print sales, especially womens’ UK lifestyle and fashion magazines. Sales of popular womens’ weekly publications, such as Now, were down 21%, and Look falling by 35%. Yet, according to the latest figures released by ABC, print sales are actually on the rise.

Food, Home and Garden living publications have generally seen a year on year increase in sales, with News and current affairs becoming more popular recently. However, Fashion and celebrity gossip magazines continue to struggle. This could be due to a trend of turbulent worldwide affairs over the last 18 months or so, as the editor of Fashion Monitor, Sarah Penny, claims.

With an ever-changing, and uncertain economy, readers turn to trusted and authoritative sources for factual news in order to understand and analyse the effects of current real worldwide affairs, rather than surrounding themselves with materialistic gossip and news from the celebrity world.

As celebrity gossip is something that does not require deep evaluation and understanding, interest in physical publications of the rich and famous have decreased, with celebrities now turning to Social media to connect and instantly share news and gossip with their fans across a range of different social platforms.

Although people still search for news and current affairs articles online, the internet has quickly become a place overcrowded with inaccurate content, where factual news is hard to separate from the ‘fake news’ posts.

This is why some of the best quality newspapers and magazine companies have introduced paywall popups in front of their online content. These companies understand that if they continue to produce high quality news analysis articles, providing readers with valuable information, they have a unique selling point, whereby readers will pay, whether that be via online subscription or for a physical printed publication, rather than reverting to free content that can be found anywhere online.

The latest sales figures suggests this, with Prospect sales up by 37.2% to 44,545, The Spectator up by 11.3% to 85,429, The Economist up by 5% to 248,196, and Private Eye seeing an 8.6% year on year increase to almost quarter of a million copies sold per issue.

This proves that top quality paid for News publications remain to be of interest to people. Could this mean we have come full circle, and print is somewhat making a comeback?

Sources: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-40897967

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/mag-abcs-tough-times-for-womens-weeklies-with-now-down-21-per-cent-and-look-falling-35-per-cent/