Browsing: Magazines

Partner articles
‘Turbulence isn’t always a bad thing’: How magazine brands are innovating their way through the multimedia age
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As the New Yorker’s editor David Remnick recently said, readers don’t want dumber, cheaper versions of legacy media. So how are magazines embracing new channels, creating new revenue streams, developing new products, working creatively with advertisers and generally showing an elasticity in their view of what media is, all while keeping their souls in tact? Jihee Junn looks at some of the best local examples.

Partner articles
From the page to the screen and everywhere inbetween: how magazines are morphing into many-tentacled consumer brands
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While magazines were once just a regular dose of escapism, entertainment or inspiration in printed form, the rise of the internet and the need for new sources of revenue has meant publishers are connecting with their audiences in a range of different ways. Erin McKenzie takes a look at how some of the local players – and the Magazine Publishers Association – are embracing that shift.

News
Green Ideas and FishHead call it a day; Fairfax sheds another title
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Despite great circulation growth and increasing subscriber numbers Healthy Life Media’s Green Ideas magazine has had to cease production this year. And this isn’t the only magazine to do so in recent times. Quintessential Wellington publication FishHead also called it a day, and this news comes as Fairfax sells on another one of its own magazines. We chat to Healthy Life Media publisher Pip Mehrtens about the end of Green Ideas and what it takes to succeed in the magazine industry when audiences are becoming increasingly fragmented, and opting for digital over print.

News
Readers are liars—and thieves: Auckland researchers show the enduring appeal of magazines with waiting room study
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When it comes to magazine readership, some titles have pass on rates in the teens, meaning that one copy of, for example, Woman’s Day, is read by multiple people. The ‘reading-it-in-the-waiting-room’ factor is often talked about as a major reason for that, and even if they’re reading an older issue, which they often are, it still counts. But why are waiting rooms filled with crappy old magazines? Thankfully, a team of Auckland researchers have discovered the reason: thieving patients.

News
A glamourous itch
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There’s a lot of talk about the role the media plays in creating unrealistic expectations around body image (check out this disturbing video to see the lengths some will go to). But, surprisingly, there’s been very little talk about the recent spate of itchy heads among women starring on the covers of magazines and whether they might be creating unrealistic expectations of scalp health.

News
Magazine readership and circ numbers a mixed bag, industry aims to change the conversation
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Once again, Nielsen’s latest readership results and the ABC’s circulation numbers don’t make for particularly pleasant reading for the magazine sector, with all weeklies charting declines deemed significant on the same time last year, plenty of other significant declines and a rare few increases. And, perhaps not surprisingly, the MPA and the various publishers are hoping to change the conversation from a one-dimensional discussion about quantity, to a multi-dimensional discussion about the quality of engagement across a number of platforms.