wholesale distribution service and deliver to 45,000 retailers on a sale or return basis. “There’s a simple metaphor for this, and that metaphor is vinyl. Vinyl is actually quite important to the music industry and is a meaningful proportion of music sales. But no one pretends it is the only way to make money from music.” Print vs Vinyl The concept of print’s ‘resurgence’ being compared to vinyl is not a new one with Enders Analysis having reported on this ideology back in 2021 in its Transformation Pains of Consumer Magazines report. During the ‘golden era of vinyl’ in the ‘60s and ‘70s, listening to vinyl records became a classic pastime with people bringing turntables and speaker systems into their homes. However, technology continued to advance with portability rising in the form of cassette tapes and Sony Walkman players. Despite this, vinyl still remained a stronghold for some with cassette tapes unable to offer the same sound quality as vinyl. Described as the “final blow to vinyl” by audio systems retailer House of Marley, was the CD. Preferred for their portability, accurate sound, and storage capacity, the vinyl was unable to compete. As a result, sales for vinyl plummeted throughout the 1990s. In 2006, sales began to creep back up again and by the end of 2020, vinyl sales had risen by 30% compared to 2019. Interestingly, with the growth of music streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music being so readily available on our mobile phones, the use of CDs and portable MP3 players have in turn taken a hit. Despite this, the sale of vinyl has continued to rise and this is due to the loyal fan base for the traditional format of listening to music. The same is now being said for printed magazines with the move to the ‘artisan era’ replicating this resurgence of demand from a dedicated fan base who prefer to take time out of the busy digital era to consume magazines in their traditional printed form. So, what does this artisan era mean for magazine publishing on the whole, and what do publishers and printers need to keep in mind to remain successful as the playing field shifts? “There’s a difference between what people say and what they do,” says McCabe. “People say they really trust magazines, but what they do is spend three hours on TikTok. One of the biggest reasons that magazines are declining in circulation is because more and more people are using YouTube or social media, which just uses up a lot of people’s time and it serves a similar purpose that magazines held or owned at one time. But if you look at the public’s perception and trust of magazines versus social media, magazines are so much more trusted.” This notion of print being a more trusted medium than digital has been confirmed by research from Two Sides. A study found that consumers believe they gain a deeper understanding of the story when read from print media (65%) over online news sources (49%). The research also found that consumers trust stories read in printed newspapers (51%) more than stories found on social media (24%). A Holistic Approach However, despite this, digital is very much booming with many opting for social media and video formats to digest their news and entertainment quickly and on the go. Due to this, print is having to reassess its role in the market, and alongside a new artisan model of printed magazines, we are seeing many publishers combining digital with print formats in a holistic approach to delivering content. Referring back to the new launches happening in recent years, McCabe says: “The circulation has not collapsed, it’s stayed quite high. And because they’ve been launched into this more artisan era, they’re ahead of the curve. They’re expecting to sell very low numbers in historic magazine terms but interestingly they are able to sustain those numbers on a long-term basis. “They’re not suffering from the declines that the bigger magazines are suffering from because they’re building an audience that really trusts them. They’ve often got live events associated with their brand, they’ve often got good podcasts or some other engagement, and good newsletters or weekly emails that go out to their audience. It all feels a bit like a club or a membership service. Actually, print works really well as an anchor to that business model.” For B2B magazine publishing, the use case differs slightly with trade magazines providing a ‘sit-back moment’ for industry members to catch up on the latest news from their industry and see what advertisers are promoting and launching. “Digitally it’s slightly different. Yes, the stories are there but what people want from online is ‘how does this digital service help me do my job?’ it’s not a lean-back moment, it’s a lean-in moment,” McCabe says. “Print probably doesn’t provide that tool in the same way, but it’s incredibly valuable in giving you an overview of what’s going on in a sector because the layout works, the narrative of the magazine design, and so on, helps you understand everything that’s going on in a sector.” And so it seems that this is the future of printed magazines – a premium, upmarket, artisan feel with smaller print runs and circulation, used alongside digital platforms such as online breaking news and video as a broader content offering. MAGAZINE RESURGENCE 32 email: news@printmonthly.co.uk January / February 2024 - Issue 346 Liverpool-based Prinovis UK closed its doors in 2022 with rival Walstead UK taking over the printing of the News UK supplements in April 2023 Factoid ▲ The shift in the way printed magazines are produced and consumed has been compared to the resurgence of vinyl records
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