More Magazines, Less Frequency the Trend?

button-launchThe numbers are in for Q3 launch numbers; new titles are slightly up from a year ago.

One hundred ninety four new titles hit the nation’s newsstands in Q3 of this year, edging out the same quarter last year by one title, according to Samir Husni’s September Launch Monitor report.

Prices are up too, perhaps proving the theory that readers will indeed pay for quality content:

  • The average cover price of issues with frequency is quite a bit higher, from $8.66 to $11.40.
  • For special issues, the cover price is also up, from $10.55 to $11.43 .

This trend may be helping to offset the loss in ad pages in the frequency titles, which are down from 14.87 to 12.79 per issue. Interestingly, the average number of ad pages rose in the specials, from 5.52/issue in 2014 to 5.76 this year.

As far as what categories are seeing the most launches, epicurean titles still reign tops, same as last year, but the home category jumped way up the list, from sixth last year to second this quarter. Media personalities are falling off, dropping from number two last year to the sixth spot this summer.

Special interest publications continue to gain, moving up from fourth to third, underscoring the continued popularity of niche titles and reinforcing the idea that advertisers are recognizing the value in this category.