Overview of the Magazine Industry

Overview of the Magazine Industry (Label C) 

In the UK studies have shown that 79% of the population appreciate reading magazines on an annual basis, this being two thirds out of the population. Although only around 6 million people in the country enjoy reading magazines an astonishingly low number of publishing houses print on regular date, the figures being around 2,500. Consumer magazines have been in business for centuries with the first ever magazine published in the UK in 1731, with it being a general-interest magazine the media industry has seen some changes in print; with a list of over 25 genres not including sub-categories. As an overview industry data represent that companies make a turnover revenue of 6 billion, generating jobs for 231,000 people within the creative journalism audience - the records also state that an even spit between sex's appeals to this industry, as 50.2% of the employees are male and 41.8 female.  

The top selling magazine category in the UK is listed as 'TV and Radio' with the top gross selling magazine being 'TV Choice', a publication that sells 1,266,242 per issue. The second highest brought magazine is also within the same genre, it being 'What's on TV?' selling 1,056,885 copies. A chart revealing the top 100 magazines selling shows that within the top twenty all of the categories are: TV, Lifestyle, Fashion and Gossip. Music magazines are not listed within the chart however researching more specifically I was able to gain knowledge that concluded 'Q' was the highest competitor in the market; selling 113,174 copies per average issue. The second biggest UK music magazine being 'Mojo' with 100,367 and finally the third 'Uncut' selling just under 1000 copies.  

The price of these magazines varies between the content within, allowing certain categories and genres to excel in both modern and traditional forms: for example the rise In online subscriptions; this profitable mediums offers diversification between a lot of companies. The amount of pages also increases the magazine's cost, as add's are sold as fractions of the page; with smaller ads being less expensive than bigger full-page spreads - stats show that consistent adds don’t get charged as much as they become a reliable source within the magazine, so an ad placed in the magazine once gets charged £2000 for an issue, meanwhile the reliable and trustworthy add/company only get charged £2000 for various issues.