When Red Herring ceased publication earlier this year, it joined The Industry Standard and Upside in the magazine graveyard, and marked the death of another business-related publication.
Though there remains a broader range of magazines available than ever, many of those periodicals are remaining on newsstand shelves and not in readers’ hands, according to a report by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
The report, which registered figures from January to June, indicated a widespread decline in newsstand sales over the last six months. Though the economy is picking up, and the need for sound financial information is even greater, business magazines have not escaped a decline in sales.
In fact, they're getting hammered.
Fast Company, for example, saw sales fall 55 percent in the January-June period. Fortune was down 12.5 percent and Money 28.9 percent.
Competition from the Internet, more print titles and newsstand price increases for single copies are among the reasons for the slump, experts believe.
"I'm not surprised," said Steve Cohn, editor-in-chief of Media Industry Newsletter, a Manhattan-based trade publication. "There's greater supply now than there was a decade or two ago, and less demand."
Business magazines are not the only genre of periodicals to see a decline in newsstand sales.
O, The Oprah Magazine, Martha Stewart Living, Reader’s Digest and Better Homes and Gardens have taken the most significant dips, taking double-digit percentage declines in single-copy sales, the report found.
The report did not include advertising sales revenues, a critical element to a magazine’s survival.
Overall, advertising sales figures have been down for three years, but a gradual reemergence of spending across a broad range of ad categories have business magazine publishers hopeful of a recovery.
Comparing this year’s numbers to 2002, advertising sales revenues are down around 8 percent at BusinessWeek, Forbes, and Fortune, and 2.36 percent at Inc. Magazine.
However, Entrepreneur Magazine saw a 9.46 percent increase while Fortune Small Business (4.19 percent), Business 2.0 (3.3 percent) and Fast Company (2.41 percent) also recorded higher advertising sales revenues.
"There’s a sense that the third and fourth quarter are going to end stronger than the first half of the year,” says Michael Federle, publisher of Fortune Magazine. "We’re seeing the financial category come back a little bit, so that’s welcome news. Tech is also showing some good strength, but it’s still not that deep in terms of the number of players.”
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