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Gossip Titles Prosper Despite Overall Magazine Declines
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by Terri Potratz | February 10, 2009 at 11:40 am
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Gossip magazines seem to be the only category within the consumer magazine industry in Canada that are seeing increased sales - even as most other titles are posting significant declines in readership and ad revenue.
Hello! magazine in particular is doing well as the only celebrity weekly published in Canada for an English readership:
Total circulation in the second half of 2008 rose an impressive 76.1 per cent, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, bolstered by an increase in newsstand sales of 51.2 per cent. Total circulation topped out at just over 98,000.
Other newsstand success stories include Maclean's magazine, which increased its single-sale circulation 6.5 per cent amid a total circulation drop of 1.1 per cent to just over 352,000 average copies.
Those were rare bright spots in a landscape in which overall single-copy sales for Canadian magazines dropped 23.6 per cent.
Fashion magazines are taking a hard hit - Elle, Flare and Fashion all reported single-copy sales declines of between 10.3 and 39.9%, losses which are much worse when compared to the declines of US fashion magazines. Like Canada's Hello! magazine, America's People magazine also enjoyed a slight gain in sales over recent months.
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at 18:43 on February 10th, 2009
Are you going to tell us why?
at 22:55 on February 10th, 2009
One of my first assignments as a Limo Driver was to transport (juicy link here) a Spanish Marquesa who was Editor of Hello magazine, and her crew from NYC to interview Mia Farrow at her farmhouse in Connecticut. The approx. 3-hour drive back and forth, and the 3-hour wait at Ms. Farrow's house was memorable for many reasons but not in an exciting or glamorous way as some might envision. I had an advance insight into what the interview was to entail : the recent divorce from Woody Allen, the farmhouse Mia got in the settlement, an upcoming movie appearance, Sun-Yi's status as a minor and a slew of questions that were craftily designed to make the Marquesa's US trip a resounding tour-de-force. While en route she made me dial England and then got on the phone with actress Natasha Richardson to do a phone interview, followed by another interview with Mary Pierce who was looking to win the upcoming Wimbledon crown.
All of which has nothing to do with your question. Why do some of us indulge with this stuff even when repeatedly we see it's not all it's cracked up to be ? Because there aren't that many happy endings ? Is trouble in Paradise for celebs reassuring news for the rest of the world ? Or is it that Gossip doesn't entail serious thought, but rather involves valid, albeit brief social interaction, similar to discussing the weather with a stranger ?
To quote The National Enquirer, 'inquiring minds want to know'......