Crain’s Gets This One Wrong

NewsstandsWe understand that bad news gets more press, but really, Crain’s New York, you’ve got this one completely backwards.

Crain’s recent article on the state of the magazine industry is headed by the stark notice that “through June, 27 magazines ceased operations.”

Ladies’ Home Journal recently announced it will cease monthly publication of its 131-year-old print edition and become a newsstand-only quarterly with an online presence. Another storied magazine, Jet, said it was halting its print edition, although it too would continue to publish on the Web,” writes Matthew Flamm.

Granted, that’s not great news, but it downplays the fact that while those 27 were shutting down almost three times as many new titles launched. Flamm does get around to that point, almost grudgingly.

“But the magazine industry continued to generate new titles, if at a lower rate than in the past. MediaFinder counted 75 print magazine launches in the first half of 2014, a 10% drop from a year ago, when 83 titles launched,” Flamm notes. “And digital-only magazines saw a surge, with 18 launches, compared with 14 in the prior year period.”

Continuing a trend we’ve seen over the past several months, regional interest publications were reported to have the most new launches of any category. This is great news in light of recent ad spend figures that show local and regional magazines with a 4.4% bump in ad revenues this year.

Half full, half empty: It’s the classic battle of the paradigms. For readers of print magazines, it’s a great time to check out some of those 75 new titles.