ically unviable at some point.” With that being said, McCabe predicts the number of closures and losses over the next five years to become accelerated to a much greater level than that of the past five years. This, McCabe says, is creating somewhat of a tipping point to where the whole system starts to feel unviable – something we have already begun to see with the closure of significant printing houses such as Prinovis. Instead of print having a resurgence, doesn’t this mean it is heading to a halt? No, McCabe says, but it will take on a new format. “In answer to the question ‘When does print finish?’, the answer is ‘absolutely, unequivocally never’. It never finishes. There is no such thing as the end of print. Print will be here forever, but it will be a slightly more artisan product than it has been over the last 50 years.” What McCabe is describing is a move from the industrial era to the artisan era which he predicts will happen around 2030/2035. Over the past few years, despite circulation levels dwindling, there have been a number of new magazines launched to market. The difference however is that these titles have been launched mostly by independent companies, rather than from the big publishing houses. Some of these launches are specialist and upmarket, illustrating what the artisan era could look like. “Print is always going to be a really loved format for magazines and indeed actually I would also argue for newspapers,” McCabe says. “Newspapers will go weekly at some point, I think, but they will still be really loved. One of the critical aspects is that they will be expensive and the volumes will not make it possible to distribute through an elaborate and complex all been moved over to Walstead UK which prints nine of the top ten magazines in the UK. On its closure, Prinovis reported a significant decline in the UK magazine market and the increasing cost of paper. With five sites across the UK, Walstead has been referred to by The Guardian as “the last man standing” within large-scale magazine printing in the UK. So, with this being said, what is the current state of magazine printing in the UK, and if the climate is so tricky, why doesn’t the picture match the reports of circulations crashing with shelves still full of magazines in stores across the country? The Artisan Era For Douglas McCabe, chief executive officer and director of Publishing at Enders Analysis, the answer is that print is now entering a new phase of existence. “We think of the industry entering now a long final phase of industrial print. This phase could last five years, it could last ten years, one doesn’t really know. But there is a desire by every publisher to make this runway, this final stage, as long as they possibly can make it.” This ‘industrial era’ that McCabe alludes to refers to the whole ecosystem around print – getting newspapers and magazines through wholesale processes to 45,000 retailers day in, day out. “Our argument is that that formula has worked brilliantly for decades, but it has probably at this point entered the final phase of what is possible. You can see the problem when you look at things like lower-level magazine sales, but also lower-level newspaper sales. “For example, with local newspapers and local weekly newspapers, you’re often getting down to a few hundred copies, and this is going to inevitably become econom- ▲ In April 2023, Walstead secured a five-year print deal with News UK There is no such thing as the end of print. Print will be here forever, but it will be a slightly more artisan product than it has been over the last 50 years MAGAZINE RESURGENCE 31 www.printmonthly.co.uk January / February 2024 - Issue 346 ▼ Digital fatigue which occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic could be causing a shift back to printed products
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