The answer is partwork publishing. 

‘Partwork’ is a word that many members of the general public are unlikely to be familiar with. They will have probably seen a partwork title on the shelves of their local newsagent. They will almost certainly have watched a TV ad for a new partwork launch – on many channels over the Christmas period there was a slew of TV spots for new partwork titles, including the ‘build your own’ fully functioning R2-D2 robot from the Star Wars franchise, which is expected to be one of the best performing partwork launches of 2017. They may have even bought the first issue of a partwork publication and then stopped buying it after a handful of issues as many other people do.

But regardless of the extent of their knowledge of the partwork publishing sector what many people don’t realise is it is big business. In 2015, partworks had an annual UK retail sales value of £32.4m, according to Marketforce. Although this figure is significantly down on the heady heights of 2009 when it was worth £45m, compared to some parts of the magazine publishing world sales remain relatively robust. So how do the mechanics of this sector work and is there anything in it for UK printers?

The UK has a long history of partwork publishing. John Read, circulation manager at De Agostini UK, says the first partworks can be attributed to the author Charles Dickens whose works were serialised into weekly parts, as books were very expensive at the time. Over the last 100-plus years they have evolved beyond just being collectable magazines. The subjects covered in that period have been vast and varied, but typically they are educational and course-based and they’re often driven by developments in new technology or trends, says Read.

“Most products are published over a one- to two-year period and partwork publishers have to be massively creative and inventive to keep the new developments coming as these are the lifeblood of the company,” he explains. “Without new products we do not have a business, unlike the magazine sector. As a result of this creative and development process partworks keep evolving.” 

This evolution has seen partworks grow into an important part of the magazine publishing sector. Although Marketforce estimates that the partwork market will be down by around 1.5% in 2016, Paul Smith, distribution and logistics manager at Hachette Partworks, says “when you compare that to the magazine market, which is tracking at -5.2%, it’s a very positive area and it’s something that Hachette has helped drive thanks to the number of new launches over the last year”.

Captive audience 

In the UK there are only a handful of publishers that specialise in producing partworks, but what companies like Hachette and De Agostini have done is they have mastered a crucially important trick, according to Samir Husni, director of the Magazine Innovation Centre at the University of Mississippi, School of Journalism and publisher of the MrMagazine.com website.

“The DNA that runs through all of these magazines is they have learned how to get the audience, or the customer, addicted to the product,” says Husni. “We always claim that as journalists, marketers and designers we’re the most creative people on the face of the earth, but what our audience is actually saying to us is ‘give us more of the same’ and those of us who can give people more of the same are the ones who are succeeding because they are creating an addictiveness to that product that brings the customer back time and time again.”

If partwork publishers can get customers hooked on a new magazine it can lead to enviable sales figures. Take the example of the build your own R2-D2. The launch issue was just £2.99 and from issue two the cover price was £8.99. To complete the model you would need to buy all 100 issues, which equates to just shy of £900. 

That’s why for partwork publishers getting that that first issue right is vital, says Smith. “That first issue is the most important thing in the world to us because you will only see the sales curve go down after part one. You won’t see sales increase like you do other magazines. It’s all about getting part one in as many hands as possible.”

This pressure explains why partwork publishers invest so much money on promoting new titles on TV, with some launches boasting campaign budgets of £1m and beyond.

“Most national partwork launches are supported by national TV campaigns,” says Tom Bath, marketing director at Hachette Partworks. “We have a large advertising budget when we launch and during that period we really hit it hard and are one of the biggest spenders because our model is based on getting as many people to see our product in a short space of time.”

In fact, one of the reasons that you will see a flurry of partwork launches during two distinct periods of the year – Christmas and January/February time and August/September – is because that’s when media costs are usually cheaper.

Bath adds that partwork publishers spend a lot of time and effort getting the product right prior to launch and put a lot of marketing spend behind it because the titles live and die on their content.

Unexpected successes

But while some successful titles always looked like being sure-fire winners, in recent years some of the best-selling partworks have been surprise hits. For instance, Hachette starting launching female craft magazines in 2015 that have performed incredibly well, according to Bath, and the art therapy colouring titles the company introduced two years ago helped create a publishing phenomenon in its own right. Other popular partwork titles in recent years have been inspired by graphic novels, licensed products from the world of TV and films and figurine collectables. Technical ‘build-ups’ – or models – also tend to fare particularly well, says Read. 

“Model builds are now a staple of most partwork publishers and they are becoming ever more sophisticated in order to attract new customers,” he explains. “These products often have a high focus on the editorial content, creating interest in the weekly build, alongside the model itself with high-quality components. Often these models are not available and are often commissioned exclusively for the partwork collection. Publishing these products in a weekly format makes them accessible to a wider audience, as these kits or models if they do exist are very expensive to purchase in one go.” 

These build-up model titles often carry a higher price point and this has been a noticeable recent shift in the market, says Anne Hogarth, circulation marketing consultant at the PPA.

“There is a growing trend for higher priced smaller launches rather than the mass market, high-selling titles of the past,” says Hogarth. “Examples include graphic novel collections, the Zippo collections, more advanced technical build-up collections, etc.”

While higher cover prices may have started to become more of a factor for some publishers the basic principle of partwork publishing remains the same – namely “having the right product in the target sector and having products that not only work in the UK market but also have global potential, affording you the ability to not only launch in English-speaking countries – utilising un-solds – but to also use any excess cover mounts into other European markets to utilise excess stock and reduce production costs,” says Read.

Sadly for the UK printing industry, although partwork publishers rely heavily on print, with many titles consisting of magazines and cover mounts, the vast majority of the work that hits UK shelves is done outside the domestic market. 

“Most of the product is printed and manufactured overseas with production taking place in the Far East and Europe depending on the nature of the title,” explains Bath. “Then it all comes back to the UK for finishing. So the magazine might be printed in one place, the cover mount might be produced somewhere else and then they come together and are finished for the UK market in the UK.”

As a result, it’s unlikely to present a vibrant new revenue stream for UK printers any time soon. However, partworks is a highly complex and competitive market and publishers have to constantly innovate to keep abreast of new trends and developments to keep their product line moving forward so you never know what might happen in the future. 

Whatever happens don’t write them off yet, because although sales may have stagnated partworks have already been around for well over a hundred years and it’s likely that they will be around for some time to come.

“Many people have said that partworks have had their day, but we keep coming up with exciting new ideas and we are still here,” says Read. So watch this space.