Periodical Publishers
Industry Profile Report
Dive Deep into the industry with a 25+ page industry report (pdf format) including the following chapters
Industry Overview Current Conditions, Industry Structure, How Firms Operate, Industry Trends, Credit Underwriting & Risks, and Industry Forecast.
Call Preparation Call Prep Questions, Industry Terms, and Weblinks.
Financial Insights Working Capital, Capital Financing, Business Valuation, and Financial Benchmarks.
Industry Profile Excerpts
Industry Overview
The 3,700 periodical publishers in the US produce and distribute magazines and other periodicals in print or electronic form. General interest publications focus on a broad topic, such as arts, culture, leisure, entertainment, politics, business, or news. Other types of periodicals cater to a specific market and include trade publications, such as scholarly, medical, or scientific journals.
Competition From Alternative Media
Periodical publishers compete with a variety of alternative forms of media, including television, radio, newspapers, books, and digital media.
Variable Costs
Periodical publishers are exposed to risks associated with the cost of paper and postage.
Industry size & Structure
The average periodical publisher operates out of a single location, employs about 19 workers, and generates about $7.4 million annually.
- The periodical publishing industry consists of about 3,700 companies that employ about 70,000 workers and generate $27.5 billion annually.
- The industry is concentrated at the top and fragmented at the bottom; the top 50 companies account for 62% of industry revenue.
- Large publishing houses include RELX Group, International Data Group, and Meredith Corporation. Large firms typically hold portfolios with multiple titles and may also operate in related categories, such as broadcast (TV) media and book publishing.
- Small companies include city and regional magazines and highly targeted trade publications. Many markets can only support one subscription-based lifestyle publication, according to Folio Magazine.
Industry Forecast
Periodical Publishers Industry Growth
Recent Developments
Nov 14, 2024 - Google Discover Becomes A Top Referrer
- Traffic from Google Discover now exceeds traffic from Google Search for some publishers, according to social analytics platform Chartbeat. Traffic from social media has decreased by a third since January 2023, from 6% of all traffic then to 4% of all traffic now. Search traffic, still dominated by Google search, has remained relatively steady since January 2023. Google Discover — the Google product offering personalized content recommendations via Google’s mobile apps — is increasingly a top referrer, up 13% across Chartbeat clients since January 2023.
- Periodical publishers are advocating for data-driven partnerships with supermarkets to increase sales, according to Supermarket News. "We need to coordinate our databases with databases of the retailer to promote directly to consumers to come into particular stores to buy magazines," said Efrem "Skip" Zimbalist, chairman and chief executive officer of Active Interest Media. This could be done partly by "embracing the ability of smartphones to use location abilities to message consumers while they’re in the stores," Zimbalist added. "We could tell consumers about a new issue of a magazine, with a new recipe on the cover, and then send them a coupon." Partnerships that leverage both magazine industry databases and retailer loyalty programs have big potential, according to Bob Sauerberg, president of Condé Nast.
- The comic book and periodical industry is experiencing consolidation of small companies and acquisition of large companies by even larger, multi-genre publishers, according to information sector news site Clownfish TV. Boom! Studios recently sold itself to Penguin Random House, for example, and Dark Horse sold to Embracer Group in 2021. Many small comic book firms struggle financially, leading to mergers and to creators seeking movie and animation deals for financial success, according to Clownfish TV. Some larger comic book companies were started with the intention of selling them to major publishing firms. The comic book industry is facing distribution changes and low sales, but there is still high demand for certain products, according to Clownfish TV.
- Periodical publishing industry employment decreased moderately while average wages for nonsupervisory employees increased slightly during the first nine months of 2024, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Periodical publishers increased prices moderately during the first nine months of 2024, according to the BLS. Periodical publisher sales are forecast to grow at a -0.9% compounded annual rate from 2024 to 2028, slower than the growth of the overall economy, according to Inforum and the Interindustry Economic Research Fund, Inc.
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