Innovations in Magazine Publishing

This book examines the key developments in the UK magazine industry since 2014 and explains in detail how the business has innovated to survive.

Innovations in Magazine Publishing explores the key issues that publishers and editors have had to grapple with in recent years and demonstrates how they have changed their business models and encouraged innovation and creativity. Written in an engaging and accessible style, the authors and contributors have drawn on years of industry expertise and contacts to examine the massive changes that have taken place in the areas of content creation and advertising in the last decade. Beginning with a highly useful summary of UK magazine publishing history, the book then provides a detailed focus on how magazines have had to adapt to a declining revenue picture in both copy and advertisement sales. This discussion considers changes in ownership and the supply chain, mutual dependency on social media, the rapid growth of the independent sector, investing in brand and product extensions, and how media companies themselves have changed to meet the demands of the new era. The important issue of ethnic diversity within the UK publishing industry is addressed and the introduction also includes a discussion of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the industry, and how the magazine business will need to respond to whatever the future may bring.

This comprehensive overview of the current state of the industry is a vital resource for students, researchers and professionals in magazine journalism, as well as for those studying media and journalism studies more generally.

Simon Das is Senior Lecturer in Magazine Publishing at the University for the Creative Arts (UCA). He was previously managing editor of UK black music monthly Touch magazine, a supplement project editor for Time Out and a freelance journalist for Arena and i-D in London, el País newspaper in Madrid and The Fader in New York.

David Stam is Associate Lecturer in Magazine Publishing at the University of the Arts London. He has been Managing Director within Reed Business Information and a Board Director of IPC Media. He has worked as a consultant for TSL Education, The Economist and The Spectator. In 2014, he co-edited Inside Magazine Publishing with Andrew Scott.

Andrew Blake is Associate Lecturer in Magazine Publishing at the University of the Arts London, having taught at the Universities of East London, Winchester and Southampton. He has written about many aspects of contemporary culture.