I’m going to have to rethink long tail, niche, magazines as a result of this blog post by chocolatetrudi. It seems that Trudi was in my shop browsing and found some titles covering her special area of interest – knitting – and found a magazine she had been chasing for some time.
We pride ourselves on our niche title range and while it does not generate the return on space we would like, feedback like that from Trudi is encouraging.
We’re planning some changes to capture more of this market without the retail costs – more on that another time.
Mark, please try not to give up on niche. I’m a car nut and buy between 2-3 magazines a month. I don’t buy the Aussie mags because they report too much on Ford/Holden and are basically just designed for hoons or yobs (a big generalisation here, but most people I’ve spoken to also agree). The mags I do buy are the import ones from the UK. Specifically Evo and Car. I’m happy to pay $10+ per magazine even if it’s a month or two old because the quality is top notch.
Up to a year ago many newsagents had these import mags but I’m seeing them slowly decline. Is the margin on them not good enough to make them worthwhile to stock?