Winners and Losers

Just how the economic downturn is going to affect the consumer magazine market is yet to be determined however there is good reason to believe that we could see a number of mass market titles across various sectors see damaging declines in audience and revenue.

In an article by Oliver Luft in last Mondays Guardian, Luft sights niche and top end luxury magazines as relatively recession proof due to the prime value placed on the early pages within these magazines. If an advertisers oxygen lies in reaching a very niche or hard to reach audience, a magazine that is trusted by this group will be on steady ground during times of cut budgets. On the contrary, titles which are easily substituted or fail to create a strong enough sense of identity to the reader and advertiser find themselves in the firing line as media planners and buyers endeavor to make the budgets work even harder.

The luxury market, whilst overloaded with titles, ever so slightly bucks the trend due to the nature of the advertising going in the magazines...these are excercises in branding meaning pages are the equivalent of prime real estate. Pulling out only creates opportunities for rival brands with enough conviction to sight opportunities during this time of economic doom and gloom. In this respect, the winners could well be those savvy enough to see this as a small window of opportunity upon which to lay their claim for a bigger market share.