• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, August 7, 2007

July saw the fewest new magazine launches in years, according to Samir Husni, a professor of journalism at the University of Mississippi, better known as "Mr. Magazine" for his obsessive observation and analysis of the business. Although it's easy to jump to the conclusion that Internet competition is to blame--reciting the familiar if inaccurate mantra that "print is dead"--Husni says the reason has nothing to do with the Web.

Overall, Husni counted 36 new magazines hitting the marketplace in the last month, down from 52 in July 2006. What's more, 2007 has seen fewer new magazines overall, with just 387 launches in the first half compared to 607 in the same period last year.

Husni--an avowed magazine partisan--concedes that this trend "is a major decline that I have not seen in a long, long time." So what's to blame for the slowdown?

There are three main problems, he notes. First, it's getting harder to convince wholesalers to distribute new magazines. Second, postage costs and direct-mail fees are raising the barrier to entry. And third, retailers are slow to create more space for magazine sales; meaning established titles monopolize limited shelf space.

If new magazines are to stand a chance in retail establishments, the industry needs to lobby retailers to make more shelf space available. It needs to underscore the value and interest that magazines hold, according to Husni.

But established publishers may not want to usher in new competition to an already fierce newsstand market. That protective instinct is effectively squashing new launches, which often rely on newsstand sales to build an audience and gain a foothold in a competitive marketplace.