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?

Me too. I like a magazine.

I have so many books, many of which are large sized non-fiction with a lot of pictures and diagrams. Some of them have been out of print for quite a long time anyway, and I wouldn't want to part with them.

Stylist is one of the very few interesting and informative magazines left for women I would say. I used to love picking up a copy years ago from one of the underground stations... where are you getting yours from?

It’s the same with newspapers. I couldn’t believe that the local newspaper- Leicester Mercury is £2.15 per day (Mon - Sat). It’s only about 30 pages. Most is ads. Some days the front page headline was online 2 days earlier.

National papers have gone up a lot. Cost of buying Leicester Mercury 6 times week, plus Daily Mail every day. About £23 a week. Or £1200 a year

I bought Red for years but now at 52 it feels a bit young for me. I buy Woman and Home every month now. for the past three months ive bought Good Housekeeping but GH seems to be printed on really flimsy paper and im not sure about their recent revamp (its £6.99 now but has been on Clubcard offer)
Woman and Home i really like and thats on Clubcard offer quite often. and yes i love having a physical magazine or book in my hand

I subscribe to The Week Junior for my kids, they love it. Print copy comes through the door each week - they are always excited to read it.

don’t buy magazines for myself anymore though

Yes i was buying New Woman from about 2002 to 2006 when i felt id grown out of it and switched to Eve.
Does anyone else remember Scarlet?

The circulations are minuscule now, I worked in publishing when we had 6 figure circulations. So niche now. Advertising unless it’s a specialist magazine doesn’t pay well consequently either. It’s partly a self fulfilling prophecy now too, they are expensive so we don’t buy them but also any mags which contain celebrity content of any kind is completely obsolete by publication.

hobby mags do ok but still tiny readerships

The only magazine/newspaper i sometimes buy is Private Eye because I want to support investigative journalism, they break so many stories including the Post Office scandal long before anyone else noticed

@threenaancurrywhore it used to be a joy working in magazines! Now it’s one of the most insanely stressful jobs! Each staff member doing the job of four people for a very basic salary. Very few good print mags are still surviving! I rate Good Housekeeping, Living Etc and sometimes Women’s Health! Online platforms like Stylist and The Juggle are horrendous! Full of sensationalised articles written by (what appears) to be privileged women trying to sound relevant or like they really understand the juggle/struggle! I really think if there was a decent women’s magazine, which had equally engaging online and social media platform women would buy it!

This is 25 years old and probably still relevant: Confessions of a Former Women’s Magazine Writer.

Similar here though back when I realised that I'd still buy occasionally as a treat. At £2.50ish it was worth doing. Now I'm appalled at the price and even as a treat I'd rarely be tempted. BBC Good Food is still great but I often think I'd get a cookery book for the same price in the supermarket.

I feel very nostalgic thinking of the excitement when I'd sneak a read of my big cousin's Blue Jeans, Jackie or Patches, and get an insight into the world of kissing boys, dates and makeup techniques that lay ahead. Or More, Just 17 and Mizz for the teenage advice about contraception, STDs and kissing (there was always kissing) when i got to the stage myself. The magazines always felt just a tiny bit ahead of where I was actually at, which gave a great air of sophistication.

@HygerTygerRe Stylist: my big Tesco nearly always has this by the free Tesco magazines. I miss the Shortlist one, though - always wonder why it was the men’s one that ended, despite Stylist now featuring editorials with £££ brands I expect from Vogue/everything well beyond an average budget.

Thanks! will take a look at the big Tesco near work. Which days would you say it's normally available?

I haven't had Stylist for a while but it's monthly and there will be a batch at their distribution spots until it runs out.

The trick is to find these, keep an eye on the publication date and try to time a visit shortly after then. The easiest place for me is a supermarket in a suburb popular with students so the pick up window outside university term times is a lot wider.

I think it comes out just before mid month so around now.

Can I just say if anyone here is a hairdresser, GP, dentist or anyone that has a waiting area - please buy a few magazines. Since covid I haven't seen one, they might be expensive for a regular person but surely a business could afford to buy one or two a month.

I read them all for free on Press Reader through my local library, plus all the daily papers.

It's amazing.

If you want the magazines you like to go out of business, do this.

Get your favourite on subscription (much cheaper and posted to door)
we have x2 magazine subscriptions to door (both weekly news ones) as we dot with teens and talk/debate events, opinions - which wouldn’t happen if we did via a laptop.

I used to like an occasional Hello! or similar, but stopped when I realised all the celebrity photos and were on the internet in the weeks running up to publication. The royal fashion blogs have photos and details of the event and clothes within hours, then the magazines run the same story about a month later, recycling the same commentary as if they had exclusive access to said royal or celebrity.

I buy a "Country Living" every now and again, or sometimes "Simple Things", but generally only when I'm going away and want a screen break for a few days.

It’s not so much certain days… more ‘in the start/first third’ of a month.
Our Tesco magazines go quickly but they are put out very irregularly, so I usually actively check as I leave my store, and then I’ll notice the latest Stylist alongside it.

Hello! and Tatler are sometimes worth the lol-buy for actual exclusives and content they’ve generated, rather than red carpet roundups which are immediately out of date thanks to the internet. (This used to be my beat, it would take all month to identify all the labels and plan the pages but the internet just has that instant “it’s Chanel” power.)

Nothing will live up to Hello’s 2008 at home with Adrien Brody, although Anthea Turner’s OK Flake wedding pics come close.

i have a pair of decent sunglasses i got free with Tatler four years ago

I used to love and buy so many magazines..New Woman, She, Red, Marie Claire, Woman and Home, Good Housekeeping. My Mum bought Family Circle and Living. Sadly the quality has gone, so expensive and I sadly browse on the Internet instead. I miss magazines at their best. I've even stopped buying the Christmas Magazines - used to love Dec and Jan Mags but it's now poor quality paper and inferior photography - understandable but such a shame

i can’t remember the last time I bought one! Used to love buying Hello, Woman’s Own, OK and Red. Wouldn’t have a clue how much they are now

Vogue was £2 this month for us, must be difficult times.