author48 Judi BaileyFreelance WriterCleveland, Ohio

Recent estimates show that e-books are now out-selling paperbacks.

According to Media Finder, during the first half of 2011, 138 new magazines launched and 74 folded.

According to an ASNE (American Society of Newspaper Editors) article posted 6-23-11, John Robinson, Editor of the News & Record in Greensboro, North  Carolina, urges editors to use Twitter. Robinson claims that it's one of the best ways to learn what people are interested in. Robinson says it will take as little as 15 minutes a day to keep up with the trends you'll find here.   

News and Notes

Consumer magazines single issue sales dropped 11% according to AdAge on 2/9/09. Blamed for the decrease in Newsstand Sales throughout 2009 were increasing gas prices and the growing recession.

• According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations 19 of the top 25 newsstand sellers had decreased sales including the best-selling magazine Cosmopolitan.
• Weekly news magazines via newsstand sales increased profits possible due to election news.
• With the exception of People, celebrity mags dropped sharply.
• 525 consumer magazines folded in 2008.
• 47 mags have folded so far this year. List can be found at http://www.foliomag.com/2009/complete-47-09

Per Hoovers.com, approximately 1000 US companies publish magazines, tabloids and journals.  The revenue of which is about $40 billion.  Of the 10,000 magazines, about 2000 have significant circulation.  The industry is top-heavy: the 50 biggest companies have close to 70% of the market.

• The ASME (American Society of Magazine Editors) reports: In 2006, 22,106 magazine titles were published in the US.  In 1999 there were 31,570.
• The number of B-to-B publications that offer digital editons increased more than 300% from 2005 to 2007, per Gilbane Research-Reports, May, 2008. 
• Gilbane also reports that the number of consumer publications climbed 200% from 2005 to 2007
• According to www.Hoovers.com, the "most viewed periodical publishing companies" are...

The Walt Disney Company

American Express Company

News Corporation

Time Warner, Inc.

The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Playboy Enterprises, Inc.

Bloomberg L.P.

Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

The Reader's Digest Assn., Inc.

LexisNexis Group

Links...

http://www.apme.com/ Associated Press Managing Editors

http://www.foliomag.com/ All about the magazine industry

http://anotherealm.com/prededitors/ Predictors and Editors

http://www.publishinghelp.com/editors/eoabout.htm About editors only

http://www.asme.magazine.org/association/index.aspx Magazine publishers of America

http://www.the-efa.org/ Editorial Freelancers Assn.

Clay Felker (continued from "For Editors" page)

Born in 1925 in Missouri, his father was an editor atThe Sporting News and his mother was the former women's editor of the St. Fouis Post-Dispatch.  Felker began his professional career covering sports for Life and was part of the crew that built Sports Illustrated.

His people were so loyal to him that when Rupert Murdoch took over New York and squeezed Felker out, they walked out with him leaving an unfinished issue that was due out in three days.

                    --- Judi Bailey

Hear ye, hear ye. 

Beware:

The Grim Reaper

Strikes!

There is a blog called the "Magazine Death Pool."  

www.magazinedeathpool.com

The anonymous blogger not only reports "obits" but has an uncanny ability to predict upcoming, er, death.  Or should I say "disappearance?" Quite interesting.  Very scary. 

Noteables include: Disney Magazine, Nick Jr., Life, Child, Jane, Success,Tango, Playgirl, Martha Stewart's Blueprint, Teen People, Cosmo Girl...I think I'll stop.  I am so depressed.

I mean when a magazine with a name like Success goes out of business, you begin to wonder.

And total freak-out news: TV Guide magazine was sold for, hold on, $1.