If you can afford it, this would be a very good time to subscribe to your favourite magazines. If you don’t, they might not be around when this crisis is over. One of the publishers I work for has already closed three titles. They won’t be coming back, and the industry as a whole is already in crisis.
A representative survey of PPA members taken last week showed an “extremely concerning†picture that advertising revenues are expected to drop by an average of 60 per cent in the next quarter, ranging between 20 and 95 per cent per publisher.
Events, upon which many B2B publishers have relied for years and which consumer brands had increasingly focused on as ad revenues declined, are down 90 per cent this quarter.
I understand that times are hard but many publishers are offering really great deals, and if you’re really skint you can still help the magazines you love by subscribing to their online editions or to digital services such as Readly or Apple News+. I use both: they’re really good on computers and absolutely fantastic on tablets, where they come very close to the feel of a real magazine.