Magazine Launches Plunged 13% in 2008

Posted on December 20, 2008

Crain's New York reports that new magazine launched plunged 13% in 2008. There wre just 335 magazine launches in 2008 compared to 386 in 2007 and 431 in 2006. That's over a 23% plunge in new launches since 2006. 2009 doesn't seem likely to be a year that is going to start out with tons of new magazine launches either.

The 335 new magazines of �08, which tended to be small titles with a narrow focus, was down from 386 in 2007 and 431 in 2006, according to MediaFinder.

And yet, despite an inhospitable environment and the growing power of the Internet, intrepid publishers see a future in print.

"You still get bigger ad dollars from print than from online," said Trish Hagood, president of Oxbridge Communications, owner of MediaFinder. "If publishers can find subjects that truly interest people, then they can find the advertising."

The future of magazines is digital not print. There are clearly going to continue to be new print magazine launches but there are likely to be less and less of them year after year.

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