World Magazine trends 2009

Commentary By Magazines Ireland
2009 was a difficult year for magazines publishers worldwide and irish publishers were not immune from the downturn. However the market remained relatively stable with irish magazine publishers contributing more than €400m to the irish economy annually; €100m of which is paid in taxes. There are more than 2,000 people directly employed in the magazine industry. every year, 125 million magazines are bought in ireland, 25 million of which are irish.

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World Magazine trends 2008

Commentary By the Periodical Publishers Association of Ireland (PPAI)
Ireland's magazine sector has continued to perform well in the past year, despite increasing competition from rivals in other traditional media, from the burgeoning number of digital media options now available to consumers and advertisers, and from the continued presence of better resourced UK titles on Irish magazine racks. According to the most recent industry estimates, upwards of 25 million indigenous Irish magazines are sold every year in Ireland, and according to recent research conducted by the Institute of Advertising Practitioners in Ireland (IAPI). Some €239m in advertising revenue was generated within the 320 Irish titles represented by the Periodical Publisher’s Association of Ireland (PPAI) in 2007, a figure that places the sector in third place, behind only national press and television, as the country’s most popular advertising medium.

Overseas titles
Imported UK magazine titles have traditionally had a huge influence on the indigenous magazine market in Ireland. Superior resources and vast economies of scale have allowed them to dominate large sectors of the local market, and they continue to do this in some categories. However, their dominance has been challenged by publishers in several key sectors who have fought back, by concentrating on areas where they could compete with rivals - for example by providing compelling local content.

Cover pricing
The recent booming advertising market in Ireland has provided a revenue source for publishers to re-invest in their titles. A combination of factors have yielded impressive results, and there have been many new titles appearing in the last five years. The rising tide has not raised all boats
for local players, and there are literally hundreds of special-interest sectors from abseiling to zoology which remain exclusively serviced by UK or American titles. One particular area where the indigenous sector has surprisingly failed has been in the delivery of a successful home-produced men’s magazine.

The future
The Irish magazine sector has had it good for the last decade, but no-one will be immune from the current global economic downturn. Industry commentators are already predicting that growth in adspend in 2008 will not be as high as in previous years (4 per cent compared with 8 per cent last year). Claiming shares of advertising spend has traditionally been difficult for many magazine titles, and a new order of reduced spending coupled with increasing costs will no doubt add to this difficulty. Newer magazine entrants who have yet to claim a regular spot onto the media schedules of leading brands may be the first ones to suffer. A key challenge for the Irish magazine sector is to make the proper transition to the online world as Irish consumers' media consumption habits increasingly go digital and their expectations from media providers grow accordingly.

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