Magazine publishers are building extraordinary online traffic for established print brands.
Last year the Magazine Publishers of America published the Top 10 Websites Associated with Magazine Brands as collated by the Media Industry Newsletter. The growth experienced by some of these magazine websites is extraordinary. Take Vanity Fair – pageviews up 64% November 2006 over October 2006; unique visitors up by 65%. That’s extraordinary growth. Other magazines are experiencing similar: Premiere; Popular Science; Time; In Style; Men’s Health.
What’s interesting yet not unexpected is that many of the titles experiencing extraordinary growth in online traffic are experiencing flat or falling sales over the retail counter. Take Popular Science: 1,055,038 unique visitors. Great online growth while at retail the science category in retail is falling – down more than 10% in 2006.
Magazines are not dead. Many titles are using their online presence to stay in touch with readers as well as attract people new to the brand. Some categories are fading and the retailer challenge is to balance real-estate up to reflect this.