Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the US, has cut 1,000 magazine titles from its stock file. While some titles are no longer published, most are. Titles such as The Economist and the New Yorker< Business Week and Better Homes and Gardens. See the New York Post coverage here and the MediaBistro take here.
The decision by Wal-Mart focuses attention on magazines. It will get other US retailers thinking and maybe cutting. It will stop some new titles launching. It will make some consumers question why they read magazines – if it’s not at Wal-Mart it can’t be that good.
Wal-Mart has to do what is right for its shareholders. It always has. Ask any family connected with a small business in middle America. This giant retailer has, in my view and the view of many, wrecked many small towns and treated many employees appallingly. So why expect them to support a socially important media channel?
Maybe the Wal-Mart decision is an opportunity for small business in the US? That’s how I see it – despite my bias against Wal-Mart. However, such a Pollyanna view of the world is probably not practical.