Dissecting the 1% Prediction of Magazine Sales

We keep reading and hearing about the reading public's love of print. Why then don't they show that love at the newsstand? Every year newsstand drops double digits in sales. If that is love, I'll take something else. We keep hearing how advertisers get better ROI in print. That may be true, but then why does advertising in print diminish every year? We keep hearing of the many new titles each year. Why then do all magazine sales show a steep drop in magazines sold? In the same vein why are print subscriptions dropping as well, (if not as fast as newsstand)? In the end, it doesn't matter how many magazines we print, the only relevant statistic is how many we sell.

Lastly you include this quote, "Try to tell this to the editor of People magazine or the CEO of Topix Media Labs," Samir Husni replied when we asked his thoughts on Bo's prediction. "In the case of the latter all his money is coming from print and from the newsstands to be more specific."

Yes, all People's money is still coming from print, but their print sales have dropped like a rock for many years. DoesPeople make most of its money from print sales? Yes. Is the print magazine growing? Decidedly not in print.

I firmly stand by my prediction of 1%. There is no data anywhere to suggest that I am wrong and every trend everywhere to suggest that I am correct. Even still, I also pointed out that what print is left will be extremely valuable to the advertisers, the publishers, to the printers and obviously to the readers who still love print. Yes, what is left will be golden because of its rarity.