Magazine Sales Decline: Want PR, Subscribe Now

Everyday someone asks me what the most important element to a successful PR campaign is and everyday I give them the same answer: "Know the media. Understand how they work and what journalists are writing about". It's really quite simple, except that there are so many media outlets out there now. How does one keep up with all of it?

As a publicist the answer is not so easy for me, but it is quite a bit simpler and easier to do for small business. Just select those publications/media you want to be in and read, listen and watch each day, week, month. Sure you can get the latest news online, but it's worth it to subscribe....especially if you want to be in that publication any time in the next few years.

This week's news revealed bad news for the nation's magazines. It is our reality. However, even as circulations decline the demand for my clients and other small businesses to be in those magazines is not ceasing. Everyone believes that if they can only make into "O" that their lives and businesses will become a mad success. And that's why I say "If you want to be in it, buy it!"

Remember that while a magazine is a great way for you to promote your business, others rely on advertising in them, and others....well it puts food on their table. So before you cut subscriptions to your fav mags and those that could be your meal ticket, read this article and think again.

First Half Circ Data Reveals Bad Newsstand Dropoff
Aug 2, 2009
-By Lucia Moses for MediaWeek

Single-copy sales for many magazines tumbled in the first half of 2009, when consumers pinched pennies and delivery snafus kept many stores from getting product.

The Audit Bureau of Circulations’ first-half magazine report isn’t due out until Aug. 31, but filings of publishers’ estimates to the ABC’s Rapid Report paint a grim picture of single-copy sales, roughly a third of the industry’s paid circulation revenue.

Early this year, some publishers suspended deliveries to wholesalers over their demand for higher per-copy delivery fees. One of them, Anderson News, went out of business as a result of the kerfuffle. Read more...