• Circulation Management, Friday, May 12, 2006 11:15 AM

You'd have to reside in the rarified world occupied by magazine circulation experts to fully appreciate, or perhaps even understand, Baird Davis' detailed, company-by-company takeout on magazine circulation levels, but this is an excellent effort at explaining the steady circ fall-off across the industry. Baird's main point is that most major publishers have been engaged in a game of "circ chicken," meaning they have done everything legally possible to hide or disguise the unfavorable circulation trends. But the jig is up, he says. His conclusion is harsh but clear: "For the consumer magazine business, 2006 is sure to be a watershed year. It will produce long overdue paid-circ level reductions, accompanied by a rise in analyzed non-paid circ, ending the corrosive game of circ-level chicken. Publishers will be forced out of their comfort zone to more vigorously defend the 'quality' of their circ. These changes will also accelerate the demise of financially marginal publications. It will be a year filled with circulation angst, but it should be cathartic for an industry in need of greater product and circ-level discipline."

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