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What is the market size of the women's publishing industry - magazines, digital sites for those magazines and digital only publishers like refinery29? How big is the business opportunity and where is the revenue coming from - banners, native, print sales, etc?
Hello! Thanks for your request to provide you with the market size of the women's publishing/magazine industry. The short version is that the overall women's segment of companies within the global magazine industry will continue to stagnate in the next few years, but may exhibit potential growth in the long-term. I have provided you a series of data points from up-to-date and credible sources, and an explanation for my triangulation.
Below you will find a deep dive of my findings.
METHODOLOGY
Initial research efforts prompted me to focus more on the term "Magazine" rather than "Publishing" because sources yielded from search strings using the latter usually lead to information about book publishing industries instead. I first directed my research towards a direct search of the overall market size of the women's magazine industry and segmentation of the market share according to medium.
From there, I redirected my research towards pre-compiled lists of the top players within the industry, hoping to find leads about their annual reports. After which, I redirected my research towards the latest press releases featuring relevant companies and industries, with the objective of finding any data points that may prove useful to accomplishing what you need.
As requested, all information cited in this request was taken from sources published not earlier than the second half 2016.
FINDINGS
Circulation for women's fashion magazines was found to decline at a year-on-year rate of more than -5 percent in 2016, while women's weekly magazines exhibited a greater decline of nearly -10 percent. Research from the Advertising Association indicates that the market size of magazine advertising in the UK dropped at a CAGR of around -12.50 percent from roughly $9 billion in 2016 down to $8 billion in 2017. UK advertising revenues for consumer magazines were forecast to fall to £320 million in 2016, a decline of -14 percent. Unfortunately there is no information published regarding the market size of women's publication, nor a specific breakdown by industry verticals. I didn't want to leave you empty-handed so I provided you with information on key market players. My results are as follows:
kEY MARKET PLAYERS
TEEN VOGUE
Web traffic for Teen Vogue increased at a year-on-year rate of 176 percent from 3.3 million visitors in April 2016 to 9.1 million in April 2017. Web traffic reached an all-time high of 9.3 million in February 2017. Sources indicate that due to the "Trump Bump", web traffic jumped from 5.5 million in November to 7.7 million in December.
VOGUE
Web traffic for Vogue also increased, but only at a rate of 25.6 percent from 5 million unique visitors in April 2016 to 6.6 million in April 2017. Vogue’s total circulation was flat year-on-year at 195,083. 131,289 or 82.2 percent were actively purchased.
GLAMOUR
Web traffic for Glamour decreased at a year-on-year rate of -1.6 percent from 7.6 million in April 2016 to 7.5 million in April this year. However, web traffic reached all-time highs during October 2016 at 11.2 million unique visits, during February 2017 at 10 million, and during March 2016 at 9.9 million. Circulation for Glamour magazine dropped at a rate of 25.6 percent within the second half of 2016, down to 260,422. 248,329 or 94 percent were actively purchased.
ALLURE
Web traffic for Allure increased at rate of 53 percent from 4.5 million in April 2016 to 6.9 million in April 2017.
W
Web traffic for W increased at a rate of 56.45 percent from 767,000 unique visitors in April 2017 up to 1.2 million in April 2017. Web traffic for W reached an all-time high at during December at 3.3 million unique visitors.
COSMOPOLITAN
Web traffic for Cosmopolitan declined at a rate of -6 percent from 15 million in April 2016 down to 14 million in April this year. Unique visitors for Cosmopolitan reached an all-time high during October at 18.8 million and February at 16 million. Circulation slightly increased by 0.6 percent to 407,622, where 77.5 percent or 306,785 were actively purchased. 100,837 copies were given away for free.
MARIE CLARIE
Circulation for Marie Clarie exhibited a 12.8 percent drop in circulation to 144,393, with 84.1 percent or 121,529 actively purchased.
ELLE
Web traffic for Elle increased at a rate of 22.03 percent from 5.9 million unique visitors in April 2016 to 7.2 million in April 2017, reaching all-time highs during December at 12.7 million, and January and February at 11 million each. Circulation grew by 2.4 percent year-on-year to 168,741. 60.7 percent or 93,122 titles were actively purchased.
BAZAAR
Web traffic for Bazaar declined at a rate of -15 percent from 5.2 million in April 2016 down to 4.4 million in April 2017. It reached an all-time high in March at 6.4 million unique visitors.
INSTYLE
Web traffic for InStyle declined at a rate of -35 percent from 6.7 million unique visitors in April 2016 down to 4.4 million in April this year. InStyle also reached an all-time high in December, seeing 8.2 million unique visitors.
OK!
OK! magazine's circulation fell at a year-on-year rate of 31 percent during the second half of 2016, dropping to 189,270.
NORTHERN AND SHELL
Circulation for the Northern and Shell Magazine grew by 7.3 percent. 167,130, or 90.4 percent of the issues, were actively purchased.
LOOK
Circulation for Look dropped at a year-on-year rate of 22 percent, down to 88,894. 77,844, or 87.5 percent of the issues, were actively purchased.
OTHER NEWS
According to an article published by Financial Times in April 2017, key players in the women's magazine industries such as Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Vanity Fair, are discovering that their readers and advertisers are shifting to online social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook.
Retailers such as Net-a-Porter were stated to consolidate content and commerce in a single platform, blurring the old lines between editorial and advertising. Their consumers now ha ve a direct way to buy clothes and other luxury items online. It was also mentioned that Vogue responded to this by launching Style.com, its own online retail site. Louis Vuitton is also planning on launching its own retail site to both capitalize on fast-growing online sales of luxury goods and to harvest customer data.
The article by Financial Times stated that brands within the women's magazine industry are developing their own sites to try to capture the direct attention and data of their customers.Findings from the Audit Bureau of Circulation reveal that UK circulation for women’s fashion and lifestyle magazines fell by -5 percent year-on-year in 2016. Other titles in the US, such as Good Housekeeping and Cosmopolitan, were found to have seen healthy rises in the UK market. Research shows that giveaways were the primary driver of this trend. Despite this, most titles worldwide have been exhibiting steady decline. Analysts from Zenith forecast that spending in magazines in the UK is set to fall from $126 million to $121 million.
CONCLUSION
To wrap it up, the overall women's segment of companies within the global magazine industry will continue to stagnate in the next few years, but may exhibit potential growth in the long-term. I have provided you a series of data points from up-to-date and credible sources and am sorry that the answer to your question is not published. I hope that you find the information that I provided to be beneficial.
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