Why are magazines so expensive?

[HygerTyger]

Magazines have become ridiculously expensive in the last couple of years. It seems quite counterintuitive as they sell so much advertising and if the magazines were cheaper then more people would buy them and therefore might buy the advertised products.

I loved the days when buying a magazine was a cheap little treat every fortnight or so. And often Grazia, Glamour etc would be sold for £1 as a 'special price', those sorts of offers you never see any more. Grazia is almost £4 now!

While I'm here, I would also like to take a moment to mourn great now-defunct magazines: Real (not Real people), Glamour, Eve, She, Bmagazine, Company, Look, Newwoman, More... there were so many I loved and enjoyed.

Anyone still buy magazines? Any old magazines you still remember fondly?

I wish there were still teenage girls magazines. The highlight of my week was buying Sugar/Mizz/Just Seventeen and getting a free lip gloss or hairband taped to the front. I wanted to get my teen DD a magazine to read on our summer holidays but the only ones they had were either little kids Disney Princess type ones or grown up celebrity gossip which she has no interest in.

I like Stylist magazine. You can pick it up for free in some city shops or get a subscription. It's not a glossy but like a small colour newspaper but has some good features and articles.

But the internet doesn’t smell all nice and new and glossy like a magazine does! And you cant put it on your coffee table.

I hear you OP - I used to buy 5 or 6 magazines a month but now Im on a budget I just cant justify it. Down to one. But I used to get so excited on publication day…a huge stack to work my way through! But I would read them v quickly and at £6 a pop….

I used to love a good magazine but stopped buying most of the ones I enjoyed as I couldn't justify the price so cut down to just a weekly soap/tv mag. Now I have a readly subscription and that alone is still cheaper than buying my one weekly mag plus I get access to loads of others I now also read. It's not the same as a physical one but here we are.

I used to love a magazine way back when. But I don’t think I’ve bought one in 20 years.

My mother in law still enjoys the ones aimed at old ladies ‘Take a Break’ and ‘Best’, I think.

Oh god the physical RUSH I got from this. I can actually smell the samples: from those fold-over paper ones to the super high-end plastic vial. Also the moisturiser miniature sachets with the glue dots clogging up the pages! I always loved the little routine of picking out all the samples and inserts and bumph to pile to one side before reading the mag. Glorious.

Energy and paper costs are 2 huge factors. There will also be the effect of a tax that impacts on companies who have to handle packaging (paper and potentially the plastic or compostable envelopes that contain magazines on postal subscriptions). The packaging element is connected to sustainable disposal of packaging and passed from the producers to the councils but the decision on the amount slapped on paper could be seen as disproportionate.

Additionally, although I don't know whether it's entirely across the UK mag industry, the Ukraine and Russia have a huge concentration of paper and packaging producers, so the war has destabilised this supply chain a lot.

Last read one 15 years ago..probably Good Housekeeping. Realised I just didn't care about the perfect Xmas!

I have a couple of magazine subscriptions for gardening magazines but I don't pay anything at all for them- I use my Tesco clubcard vouchers. There are lots of different types of magazines you can get with the clubcard vouchers including plenty of women's magazines.

It's a combination of a number of factors, isn't it? They have to cover the cost of printing (inc paper) and distribution, which of course is variable depending on how many they print. But their fixed overheads (staff wages, office space, IT, royalties etc etc) remain the same whether they sell 50,000 copies or 500,000 copies.

So say the cost for printing each magazine is £1 plus overheads.

The overheads are £100k so for a print run of 500,000 then it is 10p each.

Total cost to produce = £1.10 so sell for twice that and the shelf price is £2.20 and the profit is £1.10.

If they only print 50,000 then the overheads per magazine are £1 each instead of 10p.

Total cost to produce = £2 so if you need a £1.10 profit you have to sell at £3.10.

Not only are you now only receiving (50k x £1.10) £55k profit per edition. When you sold 500k of them you made (500k x £1.10) £550k. You are essentially making £495k less profit per edition than you used to.

There's also the reduction in advertising income, so you have to put the price of the magazine up. Again.

E&OE 😂

I remember the absolute pleasure of buying Jackie too,then just 17 Cosmopolitan, Company, Marie Claire from teenage to early 20's.
The only one i buy now is Country Living it's an unbelievable £5.99 per copy , i just got a 5 copy subscription for £5.00 that's the only way i will buy it ,also the odd Vogue for my daughter when its a £2.00 offer.
There used to be some amazing gifts attached to fashion mags but i haven't seen one for ages.
The demise of magazines is sad , i can understand they cost a lot to make but they are an expensive product just for a short term amusement .

Mikart, same. I was buying House & Home until I realised that I don’t even like Crittall doors, navy blue paint or kitchen islands.

Ooh I loved Glamour and New Woman

@threenaancurrywhore Exactly! That's a real blast from the past. On one memorable occasion I got a sample of facial self tan with a Marie Claire. Gave me a lovely orange moustache where it had collected under my nose.

Me too. I haven't bought a magazine for years.

I stopped buying any after once totting up the percentage of ads - it was 70% of the pages.

I'm enjoying Breathe. It's £6.99 so pricey but no ads, lovely thick paper, a random selection of articles, always including some lovely art. I like to flick through to avoid doomscrolling. But now I'm comparing the price to a paperback and wondering...

I stopped buying women’s magazines around 15 years ago long before TikTok etc. more ads than articles and I got fed up paying for that.

Now i get free (paid by work) monthly business magazines at work - those are a good read.

Circulation is right down, and the production costs are enormous. People are more into social media, websites including Mumsnet which serves a similar function

I agree and I still LOVE a magazine, albeit there isnt really anything for my age group these days - mid 50’s. I buy an odd Grazia, Closer, OK depending upon who’s on the cover, recently had a Living North and a Country Life subscription. I just prefer the paper versions over the online ones.

Thanks for that!

I still love buying magazines, the feeling of newness and the visual aspect of it is a treat.

Books haven't died a death despite online content, so I'm hoping the print media will enjoy a resurgence.

I remember buying Elle in 90s and 00s, the fashion stories were visually stunning and engaging.

I May start buying Viz again 🤣

I worked in magazine publishing for decades, paper costs are the most punishing, repro, print and distribution are also high. Magazines rely on advertising to keep going, advertisers want to know subscription figures primarily and then readership. Both these are falling.

From authors’ perspectives, books have absolutely suffered because of online content, and Amazon’s shittiness. Plus paper costs there, too! Germany won’t buy English books to translate if they’re too long because they get even longer in German, meaning more paper.

Appreciate though you can still walk into a Waterstones and get overwhelmed by choice, whereas a magazine browse in Smith’s ain’t what it used to be (and I still mourn the loss of RD Franks!).