The worst of the economic storm may be behind us, but its legacy continues to hit the UK magazine printing industry. The fall in advertising sales and circulations was a big one and the climb back up has proved a tricky expedition that looks set to take a good while yet to complete, if indeed it ever manages to return to former heights.
The spending reviews and cost savings that resulted in the closure of high-profile titles such as Maxim, Arena and Eve are not yet over and Dave Emeny, group sales director at Wyndeham Press Group, says the pressure is on all elements of the sector to find savings.
"It's an over-supplied market. A lot of cost savings have been made which puts pressure on everybody," he explains.
Publishers have examined all parts of the supply chain from the cost of paper through to delivery. The result of these reviews is that paper grades have been downsized, format sizes have been trimmed and back-to-back print production methods have been put in place to slash print budgets.
These cuts have been enforced off the back of smaller advertising revenues, resulting in reduced paginations. Subsequently, the unit cost of magazine production has reduced in excess of 30%. It is clear that magazine printers are facing a very challenging market.
Indeed, the mothballed titles and spending reviews have claimed some notable print names, such as Cambridge-based Piggott Black Bear and Tewkesbury-based Cooper Clegg.
However, there is hope lingering on the horizon. Tony Jones, chief executive of Pensord, says there has been a discernible reduction this year in the cost-cutting strategies that were prevalent last year.
"We've planned for an increase in budget from our existing titles and we are starting to see it happen," says Jones. "It's sort of ‘so far so good' in a very modest way."
Cause for optimism
Another optimistic voice is Polestar marketing director James Povey, who adds: "Consumer magazine publishers are reporting some uplift in advertising levels and paginations are up on this time last year, which is great news."
The optimism is thanks in a large part to the publishers themselves. Many are refusing to lie down in the face of dwindling circulations and are taking the fight to the market, investing in redesigns and rethinking the way in which their flagship brands are produced.
A quick search on printweek.com reveals more than 20 magazine re-launches in the past four months, including music magazine NME and free weekly title ShortList.
Publishers are also putting more effort - and money - into their covers. For example, Esquire had a six-page gold Mirri board metallic board cover for its October issue printed by Wembley-based Colour Five. Meanwhile, an upcoming edition of IPC's Wallpaper* magazine intends to let readers create a personalised cover for the ‘handmade' theme of its August issue later this year, using an online design application. The title expects around 24,000 personalised designs to be created, bound and printed for its customers.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. In the past year, publishers have also experimented with 3D-lenticular technology, QR codes, augmented reality and electronic-ink covers.
"Publishers are trying to create covers that jump off the shelf, so are looking at having die-cuts in the covers and pop-ups," explains Emeny.
Digital editions and special subscriber-only covers are another angle publishers are exploring. Electronic editions of the printed magazine offer an alternative way of viewing
content that complements, not necessarily replaces, print. This was exemplified during January and February's snow storm, when titles such as Elle, published by Hachette Filipacchi, provided digital editions so subscribers weren't inconvenienced by the late delivery of their magazines.
Digital benefits
The benefits of digital editions are numerous, according to Pensord's Jones, who was one of the first specialist magazine printers to promote the technology.
"It allows customers to receive a title in countries where they are not syndicated and can offer a way of producing taster sections to entice subscribers," he says.
Compact sizes for consumer titles are also on the increase. Although this is not a new trend - most of the glossy
women's titles currently offer this alternative sizing - it's anticipated that other magazines will follow suit in the future from different segments of the market.
Another notable trend has been a reduction in format sizes, magazine frequency or both. In April, professional cycling magazine Procycling, which has a print run of 40,000, trimmed down its size, resulting in a wider-format title on thicker paper. The title, printed by Midlands-based William Gibbons & Sons, went from 290x210mm to 285x232mm, with the cover stock increasing from 170gsm to 250gsm. Text pages were also beefed up from 60gsm to 80gsm.
The British Journal of Photography also trimmed its size earlier this year and reduced its frequency to monthly after 150 years as a weekly. The shift has allowed the title to use better-quality paper - its cover has gone from 150gsm to 300gsm - and higher levels of repro to bring more depth to the images. It is printed by Stephens & George.
Similarly, Creative Review has trimmed down to 250mm square to take into account postage pricing. The money saved was invested in a heavier paper stock and redesigned editorial pages, using Caslon typography that was revived by Paul Barnes for a project at St Brides.
"We are a fully paid-for subscription-based magazine and our website allows readers from all over the world to access information a lot quicker, but our readers are designers and so prefer something more tangible," explains Janice Hoyes-Thompson, group production director at Creative Review. "In a normal issue, we have two to three different types of papers. We get a lot of paper companies queuing up asking us to use their paper because it's all about the look and feel for readers, which you can't get across online."
Growth point
Looking forward, growth, if it comes at all, looks likeliest to be delivered in the customer publishing arena, which commanded seven of the top 10 positions in ABC figures for the second half of 2009 in terms of circulation. They now represent a third of all magazines in the top 100.
"Retail publishing has been a big growth sector for us," confirms Sharon D'Cruz, group marketing director at Wyndeham, who claims that the company is now the second biggest magazine printer in the UK following its IPC contract win. "It's a very effective way for brand owners to connect with their customers so it's certainly a growth market. Many of the major contract publishers are providing more customer titles, so there's a good future in it."
While retailers and brands may have reined in overall advertising spend, customer magazines are an incredibly effective way for these companies to engage with their customers. There is also the added draw that some of them are even making money from customer magazines by selling third-party advertising.
For example, in March, Unilever teamed up with Tesco to add a 17-page flip cover ‘mini magazine' to the supermarket's bi-monthly customer magazine promoting the brand's Dove Men + Care range.
In the future, it's likely that more companies will go down this route and this will inevitably have a knock-on effect on consumer publications in particular. But Jones feels that there is still a great future for printed magazines in all guises and also for printers to generate new revenue streams from their clients.
"Printers will have to be publisher centric, rather than print centric, and look to help publishers deliver their content through other platforms such as mobile, social media and other forms of delivery- not just print," says Jones.
But this shouldn't be to the detriment of printed editions, believes Polestar's Povey. "There is a lot of focus on new media at present," he says. "However, core revenues are generated from the printed product and this will continue into the future."
HOW PRINTERS ARE ADDING VALUE
? Creative covers can be achieved without necessarily spending a fortune. QR codes married with augmented-reality-rich content, as recently demonstrated by Grazia magazine, extends multimedia capabilities
? Compact editions and subscriber-only special edition covers are on the up, with consumer titles such as Elle and Esquire offering subscribers collector’s edition covers. Wallpaper* also hopes to produce 24,000 personalised covers later this year in one of the most ambitious magazine cover projects to date
? Trimming sizes can bring postage savings that can be re-invested in better quality paper grades. But if publishers are downgrading their paper grammage, printers can fingerprint these lower grade papers to their presses to make sure previous results can be closely matched
? Publishers can still offer readers something unique with die-cuts and pop-up advertising within titles. IPC recently produced a pop-up print ad for Kleenex that went into several of its titles, including Marie Claire and Homes & Gardens
? Producing digital editions of sections of the printed magazine to serve as a taster to subscribers can help publishers build up circulation in other countries as well as get new readers at home
