Print Prospered In 2023, On Track To Repeat This Year
- by Ray Schultz , January 21, 2024
Print media consumption rose in 2023, and this trend should continue in 2024, according to a study by Pew Research Center.
Specifically, home and food magazines grew as follows:
- Good Housekeeping, 12.1M readers, +2% vs. two years ago
- Southern Living, 11.7M readers, +5% vs. two years ago
- Food Network Magazine, 11.3M readers, +28% vs. two years ago
- Taste of Home, 8.6M readers, +7% vs. two years ago
- HGTV Magazine, 8.1 million readers, +14% vs. two years ago
- Country Living, 7.6M readers, +18% vs. two years ago
- AllRecipes, 7.5M readers, +34% vs. two years ago
- Food & Wine, 6.7M readers, +23% vs. two years ago
Meanwhile, high in-home readership magazines include:
- AARP The Magazine, 38.9M readers (89% in-home), +5% vs. two years ago
- Costco Connection, 32.4M readers (90% in-home), +10% vs. two years ago
- AllRecipes (64% in-home), 7.5M readers, +34% vs. two years ago
- TV Guide (61% in-home), 6.7M readers, +20% vs. two years ago
- Taste of Home (56% in-home), 8.6M readers, +7% vs. two years ago.
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MRI-Simmons reports that 80%+ of 100+ national magazines have lower readership than they did a decade ago. But, over the past two years, nearly 90% of those have maintained or actually increased readership.
Catalogs are also growing apace. "Amazon’s Holiday Dash catalog which tops 100 pages, has been described as a mashup of the iconic Sears catalog and Highlights magazine," Pew writes. "And it’s been a huge hit with kids and parents alike. The Neiman Marcus holiday catalog turned 97 this year and shows no signs of slowing down — as its 2023 luxury travel section and 80-page fine jewelry insert clearly suggest. And L.L. Bean, which famously shifted its focus to TV and digital in 2017, is also leaning into print this year in a big way."
Ray, print media is hardly prospering if capturing advertising dollars and becoming profitable are the benchmarks. "Audience" is certainly the least likley indicator of success, especially when most of the "readers" don't live in homes that actually pay to receive the publcation---it's those "passalong" readers that puff up the stats.
When "Colliers' and "The Women's Home Companion" went belly up in the 1950s they were attaining all time high circulatuions and readership levels. When "Life Magazine" folded its first tent, in the early 1970s, it was reaching something like 25% of all adults per issue and 50%+ if you bought a schedule spread out amoing a dozen or so issues. And "look" and "The Staurday Rvening Post", which also gave up the ghost, were no slouches on the "audience " front either. The same point applies to the sad events of the recent decade which have seen the consumer magazine medium plunge from the heights. The disaster, which unfolded before our very eyes, had nothing to do with "audience" nor demos---they were very good, nor ad receptivity--it was the highest, nor CPMs. The lost ad revenues went to TV ----to fund CPM increases---- and to digital media.
Could something have been done to avoid this disaster? I wish it was so---but that's another story.
Do you have a link to the Pew study? Site search is only leading to the recent study on news media. Thank you!