Magazines: R.I.P.

http://www.foliomag.com/2009/breaking-source-interlink-anderson-news-shut-down

BREAKING: Source Interlink, Anderson News Shut Down Wholesale Ops

Two weeks after threatening publishers with separate 7-cents-per-copy price hikes, a pair of major magazine wholesalers, Anderson News and Source Interlink, have decided to cease operations, according to a source at Comag.

When contacted by FOLIO:, a Source Interlink spokesperson declined to comment “on rumors.” Anderson could not be reached for comment.

Last month, a week after Anderson News announced it would increase its price by 7 cents per copy, Source Interlink said it will be raising its own per-copy distribution rates by 7 cents.

Combined, the pair account for about 50 percent of the magazine market.

Both companies gave publishers the deadline of February 1 to comply with the price hike.

Publishers and distributors balked at the idea. Time Inc. and national distributor Curtis Circulation said its publisher clients will not comply with the Anderson's 7-cent price increase. Comag, however, extended its contracts with both Anderson and Source Interlink—without the price increase.

Now, all four national distributors have stopped shipping their magazines to Anderson and Source, including Comag.

What's Next?

Magazines with on-sale dates of the week of February 2 will still be distributed. Comag is asking clients to not ship magazines with on-sale dates after that week until further notice.

According to distribution sources, Hudson News and News Group—two other major magazine wholesalers—have been working behind the scenes to pick up the business left on the table by Anderson and Source. Most of the major retailers, the sources said, are negotiating contracts.

According to these sources, Hudson News will expand into Southern California and its East Coast operations into the mid-Atlantic. Newsgroup will expand into the southeast and Chicago.

Two hours ago, retailers signed over business from Anderson to Newsgroup, including Wal-Mart, according one source.

'It's Going to Be a Mess'

But most are not expecting a smooth transition. “It’s going to be a mess for a couple of weeks,” said one major consumer publisher.

“Fifty percent of the distribution market has just evaporated,” said John Loughlin, executive vice president and general manager at Hearst magazines.

“The thing I worry about is the law of unintended consequences,” he added. “You can debate who precipitated this, but I'm a believer in free-market competition.”

Loughlin said it is going to be “very difficult to smoothly transition that tonnage of magazines to the market using alternative methods.”

He added: “I guess I'm glad I'm not publishing weeklies."

According to another source: “This is going to hit some regional magazines 100 percent. It will put many out of business, to the extent they rely on newsstand."

“Weeklies would be hit the hardest while others will have more time to come up with another plan," John Harrington, publisher of the New Single Copy newsletter, told FOLIO:. "There will be lost sales for some issues.”

There were some publishers who felt Anderson and Source would back down from their initial demands. It appears now they were not bluffing.

“The business has not been profitable and has not been for a very long time,” CEO Charlie Anderson said in a January conference call. “What we are trying to do is give some stability to the channel. Short of that, there will be an implosion in the business."

Two people I know working at small circulation mags handled by Anderson are sick to their stomachs right now.

in case of tl;dr

If you like a magazine currently, there's a chance you just saw the last issue of it.

i hate reading for long periods on line.

Woah this is a pretty big deal. What kind of mags we talking about?

Probably just about everything you see on a newstand in the US.

I don't really know who distributes what. I imagine things like Time, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, etc. are safe...but others, like niche music, culture, style, special interest mags are probably handled by either of these two companies in large parts of the country.

One of my friends said if they don't find a new distributor by Friday, they'll have no choice but to go on indefinite hiatus.

Source Interlink is also the parent of a fair number of magazines of their own. Apparently those might be toast.

But Time, EW and RS as weeklies are likely to be the most fucked by this it sounds like.

They'll be fucked short term if it's not sorted, but they have the weight to pick up alternate distro through regional companies pretty quickly. Smaller mags don't have that luxury.

I've heard some bad news about one certain boutique publisher...

But Time, EW and RS as weeklies are likely to be the most fucked by this it sounds like.

Time, Inc. has enough contingency plans to weather out the storm. It was actually Time's refusal to go along with the price hike last week that precipitated some of this.

Quoting from http://www.minonline.com/news/9865.html

A worst-case scenario could have People's 1.5 million newsstand average cut to 1 million. And Sports Illustrated, with its 2009 Swimsuit issue breaking on Feb. 10, could be hit hard. An estimated 1.5 million of Swimsuit's 4.5 million rate base is newsstand (regular SI editions are relatively newsstand-minuscule), but we are told that is almost certain SI executives have distribution "contingencies."

I've heard some bad news about one certain boutique publisher...

Doubledown Media? They're already toast...

: (

I don't want to name names, but it's a very reliable source. Sorry.

This is freaking insane.

won't the magazine companies just raise the price by a dollar to cover the 7 cent increase? it's not too late guys!

Okay, that's not what I thought I had on my clipboard.

Metal Maniacs, Metal Edge and Relix all "on hiatus"

Entertainment Weekly, Time, People, and other magazines that sell a large number of newsstand copies, especially at supermarkets, will be hardest hit by Anderson and Source Interlink going under. Existing wholesalers will pick up the accounts, but there will be a big disruption. Weeklies will be hurt the most.

Many smaller boutique magazines sell most of their newsstand copies through bookstores which are serviced by different wholesalers. Most magazines, particularly smaller special interest magazines, get most of their circulation through subscriber copies.

A much bigger concern, for magazines of all sizes, is the advertising market. That's what causing magazines to fold right and left.

Source Interlink is denying everything now:
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/magazines-newspapers/e3i935c93ae376614205bf3626cb75e863a?imw=Y

This is interesting. So who's the source at Comag wanting to shock the hell out of people?

Bad news

I keep wondering if this whole recession thing was cooked up expressly to choke off niche cultural products, organic produce, ideas, whatever else.

http://www.superstarcastic.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/yoaxl.jpg

Win A Car From Suicidal Tendencies!

lol 90s

Megadeth
Shooting Gallery

^unintentional lolz

RIP was Lonn Friend's magazine, right? I remember buying an issue or two, but mostly I just like that guy from all the VH1 metal countdown list shows.

yeah RIP was his, pretty good mag, def more adventurous than the average metal mag...i remember reading about mission of burma for the first time in RIP, they would do some weirder reviews sometimes

The fact that The Beautiful is on the cover of the issue pictured above is kind of a mind melter to me (I'm pretty sure I'm the only person who remembers that band).

Not quite!

Well, of course. Ned Raggett remembers all.

man I love magazines. I mean I read the internet all fuckin day like everybody else but magazines rule on airplanes, when you feel like lying in bed & not staring at yr PDA, etc. hadn't heard that metal maniacs was "on hiatus," that sucks. I am generally down w/the future but it is a drag to watch media that I liked going under.

i think technology is going to make the future more boring in some ways unfortunately, to repeat what i said on the kindle thread

^^^ good example of it too

;)

;_;

:O

: D

XD

I think if anything happens to Decibel I may be crushed 4-eva. The only must rush out and buy music mag I look forward to anymore.

rip arena

never read you

"The twice-a-year style magazine offshoot, Homme Plus, will continue publishing, edited by Jo-Ann Furniss."

so, that's good.

i wrote 1 (one) feature for Arena, a whiles back, but i hate those dude magazines, all chock fulla ads for £500 watches.

Kinda thought it had folded years ago.

I had no use for them, but RIP anyway.

all chock fulla ads for £500 watches

Evidently not that full.

oops they just fired everyone at OK magazine while they were still putting together this weeks issue, good job all around

Vibe, RIP

I remember buying the first issue of Vibe back in 1992. Thought it was great, though tbh I haven't looked at a single issue in 15 years.

It was the only hip-hop/rap mag I ever bought more than one issue of, and that was mostly in the last two years or so.

"I remember buying the first issue of Vibe back in 1992. Thought it was great, though tbh I haven't looked at a single issue in 15 years."

YOU KILLED IT!

Kirkus Reviews and Editor & Publisher are out

We've been getting Newsweek for free for two months now. They refuse to admit that we won't renew.

what's the deal with all these "magazines aren't really dead yet" ads I've seen in a couple of different magazines?

I've discovered all the old "INPUT" magazine pdf's available on line now, an old 8bit computer type in mag back from the 80's

http://www.bombjack.org/commodore/magazines/input/input.htm

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/02/style/special-projects.html

“People were so hungry for ideas.”

RIP ideas

and hunger

Events Are the New Magazines

And Nicole Vecchiarelli and Andrea Oliveri, the founders of an agency called Special Projects, are here to celebrify them.

welp, there it is, the worst imaginable combination of headline and subhead

Ooh, ooh, let me try making a statement which doesn't actually mean anything: 'Cookies are the new hang gliders, and I am here to zhuzhify them.'

hey remember those floppy booklike things filled with words and pictures that you sometimes look at when you're on the shitter? yeah turns out the new version of those is uhhhh a bunch of rich people standing in a room together

Few weeks old, but just heard about this:

https://goodereader.com/blog/digital-magazine-news/barnes-and-noble-will-stop-selling-new-magazines

As a non-USer I assumed B&N had already gone the way of the big Borders in the sky, tbh

180 Gram vinyl, Nooks, and biannual Criterion Collection sales have somehow kept them afloat.

B&N walk back the magazine thing in that article, although it doesn't bode well--it feels like whatever titles Covid-19 doesn't kill, B&N possibly not reopening stores/ordering less when they begin ordering again will.

Possibly South Florida benefits from the tourist trade, for my two B&N in normal times are as packed as airports.

The two-storey B&N in downtown Seattle closed a few weeks before the pandemic lockdown, and a 40-year-old newsstand in Pike Place Market closed in January. (The 78-yo owner had been running it unpaid for the last 13 years, living on social security.) An independent bookshop carried fashion magazines and The Believer and such pre-pandemic, and supermarkets have gossip rags & travel glossies, but I literally don’t know where Cosmo or Men’s Fitness are sold now, let alone music or film magazines.

that newsstand was dope.

there was a nice small but comprehensive newsstand on around John and Broadway, I’m sure it’s been gone at least since the light rail moved in

not to disparage the light rail

The two-story Barnes & Noble in my town was originally closed temporarily due to the COVID-19, but then suddenly closed for good and was replaced by a medical office. I know, it's hard to muster up a lot of sympathy for them, believe me, but I'm a little disappointed. Most immediately because my 8 year-old absolutely loved going there, they had a pretty sizable kids section and a really good selection of what he calls "smarter" toys that you can't find at, say, Target. We have a couple other independent bookstores which we support regularly too, so we'll be fine, but I feel for people in mid-sized cities and larger towns without those. Growing up in central Illinois, B&N and, later, Barnes & Noble, were literally the only bookstores within an two hour drive. They were godsends when I was in high school.

More germane to this topic, we have a wonderful newsstand here that I hit up regularly, so magazines are still around.

The other local B&N by me had a constantly packed magazine section, but it seemed to be a lot of people just browsing them while drinking coffee in the cafe and not actually buying them.

I recently found myself in Greenwich Village wanting to buy a magazine to read at lunch, and I was shocked to discover I couldn't find a newsstand anywhere. I covered several square blocks and there was nothing. They just seem to be gone, even right there in the shadow of NYU. At CVS all they had was a few of those single edition special interest magazines, the kind that typically cover subjects such as the British Royal Family or Taylor Swift.

The podcast Decoder Ring just put up a fascinating episode on the phenomenon of this latter type of magazine, which they call Bookazines but which are known in the business as SIPs, meaning Single Issue Publications. A highly recommended listen.

I think the only magazine stands I've ever seen in recent years have been on the subway platforms, but I'm not even sure if many of those are still around.

(Forgot - Walgreen's and Barnes & Noble still have a magazine section...not the same but at least it's something.)

Went to a magazine's website this morning (OK, it was Relix) and saw that their contact page contains the message "Sorry, we do not accept subscription cancellations". I wonder, can you subscribe for just one year, or do they auto-renew you until you die or they go out of business?

Well, that’s one business model I haven’t came across before.

xps Yeah B&N seems to be hanging on to their magazine sections. I should memorize all their locations in my area. But I have a feeling this situation won't last.

Jared Kushner's brother is trying to relaunch a print version of LIFE, we'll see how that goes

As they say in that podcast I mentioned, there is only one national magazine distributor left in the US. And there's only one national magazine wholesaler left, which controls 90% of all the magazine market. And both of these companies are owned by the same hedge fund that owns the publisher that dominates the SIP market.

At CVS all they had was a few of those single edition special interest magazines

This is very common in Japan over the past decade or two: well-researched (& photog'd) massive magazines appealing to very obscure, niche subjects (sometimes annual/quarterly) but often just stand alone publications. You can learn all about coffee plantations in western sumatra in high gloss ~300pages.... or Kevin Shields gear/guitar tunings... or the best bigoli vendors (and history of) in Venice...

Fwiw, up until last year both my Mom and my sister worked as merchandisers for a chain of magazine/book distributors (TNG -> SAS being the last corporate move). It is so fucked right now. Years of companies buying companies buying companies, and nobody knows what the fuck they're doing anymore.

Josefa - wow! I didn’t realize how much that market had withered.

which they call Bookazines

In Japan they are called mooks.

My mom gifted us a People magazine subscription forever ago; I guess it's been an auto-renew thing. My wife finally told me to cancel it because she never reads it and the kids get to it and there's that section about 2/3 of the way through where People turns DARK. Usually true crime or something.

Anyways, the website gave no information on how to cancel so I called up the number for subscription services and they cancelled it, sending my mother a check for the remainder of that year's subscription.

My mom recently gave us a subscription to the Saturday Evening Post which I was surprised still exists. It's super lame, I need to cancel that as well. It's a magazine made for waiting rooms.

my stepmom got me a Smithsonian subscription years ago and I guess it's on auto-renew.. not sure I'm their target audience (always ads for Jitterbug phones and river cruises) but it's gotten better and more diverse over the last couple years and I generally find something to read in there, often on the toilet

My livelihood for 20 years was design/DTP/prepress for a subscription-only magazine. The owner, in very bad health, sold it in the fall of 2021 to owners who only put out one more issue; I think they only wanted the property for its mailing lists. The sleazy thing was when the new owners kept billing subscribers for renewals without putting out new issues. My name and contact info was on the website as Production Manager and I got a lot of calls and emails from subscribers wanting to know where their magazines were.

(I emailed the new owners several times, telling them I wanted my name off of the website, with no response. I finally emailed a contact at the marketing company that designed and maintained the site and got them to take my info off. Within another month the site was dead.)

I feel truly lucky to live a walk away from a killer newsstand that carries lots of magazines, it's great. That said, I've definitely seen the selection wither and the racks grow more bare in recent years. It got really bad during the pandemic and had bounced back nicely, but lately it's been on some real tumbleweeds blowing through shit in some sections. Naturally the music section has had the most marked change. It's full, but 90% of it are those sub-Ultimate Music Guide style one issue rags dedicated to specific artists that are so thin on content you can almost see right through them. Uncut and MOJO show up maybe every third or fourth issue. The Wire was always kinda late, but I haven't seen a new issue blow through since the 2023 Review issue.

Even the Barnes & Noble near where I work has collapsed its previously huge magazine section into one the size of a supermarket's magazine racket back in the 90s.

Pretty sure the Barnes & Noble near me has more shelf space devoted to vinyl than to magazines.

The remodeled Barnes & Noble near me that moved into a new space definitely has a smaller magazine section, but it's still decently sized.

hedge fund that owns the publisher that dominates the SIP market

Meredith or…?

didn’t realize how much that market had withered

I think Grisso’s post is probably closer than “withering”

The publisher they were referring to is a360media

Western Society is marching towards functional illiteracy

I wonder how many of us under 50 have auto-renewing subscriptions to magazines that were given as gifts years ago. My dad gifted me a subscription to Consumer Reports in like 2012 because I was trying to buy a car, and I still get them. They just sit in an undisturbed pile in the bathroom under two dozen issues of Tape Op (which I do read). Its just part of the decor at this point.

My aunt also gifted me a Downbeat subscription a few Christmases ago and I was still getting issues after she died, which was weird. Eventually they stopped.

I have a subscription to DownBeat not because I write for them, but because I vote in their critics' poll every year. Filling out the ballot takes almost as long as sitting for the SAT, so honestly I'm not even sure it's worth it, but whatever.

If you're in New York, I will always suggest going to Casa Magazine:
https://www.instagram.com/casamagazinesnyc/?hl=en
They have sold their business to another place, but will be the same
https://www.curbed.com/article/casa-magazines-mohammed-ahmed-sold.html

I love them

Thanks for that. I’m crushed to find my favorite magazine shop, Ink, on Avenue A, closed last summer, More of a real estate issue than a magazine industry issue apparently.

Any places in NYC I could get foreign (other than British) music magazines? I can get by in French and German reading records reviews.

Try Casa!

Wal-Mart still has a magazine section. Much of it is puzzle magazines.

I guess this is contrary to the spirit of this revive and magazines in general but….just subscribe? I subscribe to 7-8 mags and not having something to read at moments notice seems like a “skill issue”, as the kids say

even in better times, retail selling magazines was an enormous pain in the ass without much upside

Magazines I still subscribe to and receive print copies of:

The Wire

Maggot Brain

The Walrus

Macleans

Prism International

The American Bystander

The Harvard Lampoon

Quill and Quire

Oh! and Broken Pencil