There are few exceptions with some declining over 20% and this is on the back of several years of dwindling circulation figures. Going back to the early 90’s some of these publications had more than double the circulation they currently manage to achieve and simultaneously the advertising rates have grown while their printing costs are effectively halved.
One can easily point fingers, but it is more educational to see what the exceptions are doing to save and, in some instances, grow their audiences.
Most publications rely on advertising revenue to survive, but some are doing well to embrace and or traverse the digital world and are growing their subscriber and advertising base, while also developing new digital platforms to gain new audiences. And there is good business sense in doing so.
Business Brief is the stand out exception to the trend of declining circulation with a 49.4% growth year on year. Most of their sales are subscription-based digital PDF versions of the magazine, saving both printing and distribution costs with only a small number of printed versions being distributed. One wonders when other publishers will start embracing digital versions as a viable publishing format. In today’s digitally enabled world you don’t need your publication sitting on some coffee table to reach readers, it goes with the readers wherever they are and whenever they have the time available to do so they can read it.
In contrast to the printed medium, digital business publications continue to show significant growth in their subscriber base. It would, of course, be argued that these are free subscriptions, but the fact remains that their numbers are hard to argue with.
Many traditional print publications are now also offering paid for premium digital newsletters with premium web content. However, with consumer behaviour as it is today, it can be argued that any person who subscribes and remains a subscriber to a free email newsletter is a committed reader. With all the email spam today, people only accept what they wish to read or see.
Monetising this audience has historically been a huge issue for publishers, however, with more and more advertising revenue moving into digital platforms, due to response factors and lower cost, these newsletters should become hot advertising property offering great value and good engagement opportunities for advertisers.
