BoSacks Speaks Out: Magazine launches down in Q1, '07

BoSacks Speaks Out: Imagine this . . . I agree with my good friend Dr. Husni twice in one week.

He is correct and the stats that he is documenting here in this note from his blog, does not suggest that we are near the end of the printed magazine, nor is it a permanent new trend, it is just a temporary re- adjustment in the cycles of publishing.

The shifting of publishing paradigms that I always talk about in this newsletter, do not suggest that fewer publications will make their way onto the printing press. In fact, I think that the new publishing technologies and models are helping traditional publishers and printers become more efficient and productive than ever before. I believe it will even lead to more magazines, but with much shorter press runs than in the past, and with a much more passionate audience . . . the readers of special interest titles.

But it is also the end to the Status Quo. Publishing has a way of continuing to change and morph. The successful new digital information distribution platform is proof of the fact that we are in the dawn of a new era with new rules.

Here is a digital information distribution quickie quiz that has nothing to do with the above observation.
There are somewhere around 2.9 billion searches asked on google each year. Where and to whom did we ask these questions before google?

“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.”
Dr. Seuss (American Writer and Cartoonist best known for his collection of children's books. 1904- 1991)

Magazine launches down in Q 1, ‘07
By Samir Husni
http://mrmagazine.wordpress.com/2007/04/04/magazi ne-launches-down-in-q-1-07/

Rocket, Sewstylish, Saphir, Urban Ink, Barbie, First Home, and Seven are but seven (no pun intended) new titles from a total of 145 new magazines introduced to the American magazine scene in the first quarter of 2007.

This is a drop of 47 titles from 2006. The first quarter of 2006 witnessed the introduction of 192 new magazines. Another major drop was the number of titles published four times or more in the first quarter of this year. Only 50 magazines were launched with the intention to be published at least four times a year compared with 72 in 2006.

There were fewer annuals, 10 compared to 20 last year and fewer specials, 77 compared to 93. For a complete list of all the titles launched in the first three months of 2007 click here. So what do those numbers mean? Not much. Since I have started tracking new magazine launches, I have witnessed a two or three years’ declines after a very healthy and busy year. In 2005 we have seen 1013 new launches, the number dropped to 901 last year, and if the trend of the previous years continues, we will see another drop again this year before the numbers bounce back.

Call it market correction if you please, but definitely it is NOT a sign that print is on its way out. History will tell us otherwise. So enjoy this quarter’s crop and look forward to more titles to come next month.