Frugal all year, U.S. consumers appear to be pulling back sharply on consumer spending in recent weeks, as the financial crisis has deepened. Economists are now predicting that spending shrank in the quarter just ended, which, if true, would be the first quarterly decline in almost twenty years. The New York Times (Oct. 5, 2008)
Gannet Co., the nation’s largest newspaper publisher, is cutting 100 more jobs this week. The announcement comes after last month’s elimination of 1,000 positions. This time around, the cuts were all in management jobs in Gannet’s newspapers nation-wide. No cuts were made at the company’s flagship paper, USA Today. As with the rest of the [...]
CMG released a report on the deleterious effects of broader economic trends. NYP columnist Keith Kelly talked to one editor who said, “Let’s face it, magazines aren’t a necessity, they’re a luxury item and people are thinking twice about how they spend their money.” The New York Post (Aug. 6, 2008)
CMG has prepared a report on the connection between weakness in the general economy and the current, challenging retail sales environment for magazines. While broad, “macro” trends are clearly hampering single copy sales in 2008, publishers who continue to innovate and capitalize on the magazine category’s inherent strengths will put themselves in the best [...]
An extensive report published by Fitch Ratings indicated that U.S. consumer magazines continue to struggle in the weakening economy, but are positioned to fair better than newspapers. Folio (July 10, 2008)
Retailers received some good news this week. Reports showed that sales attributed to the July 4 holiday and the receipt of stimulus checks increased chain-store sales 2.3%. Widespread discounts and promotions are expected to clear out merchandise for July, typically a slow retail month, but the general health of retailers in the slowing economy remains [...]
Folio revisits some of the 2008 predictions made last December by executives and industry insiders, and asking once again what it looks like ahead? The answers and outlook for most of the magazine universe is bleak. Folio (July 7, 2008)
Instead of painting a perfect world, advertisers are striking a cord with anger to relate to consumers. Advertisers know that Americans are nearing their last nerve when it comes to our wallets and they’re trying to capitalize on these emotions. Jackson Hewitt ran an ad featuring people fed up with their taxes. Southwest Airlines has [...]
At this point in the year, it could go either way. “It will bode well for some other media, and whether that winds up being print or online, I don’t know,” said Roberta Garfinkle, senior vp, director, print strategy, TargetCast. “The beauty of print is that they never run out of inventory.” Weeklies and fourth-quarter [...]
In just a week’s time, the magazine business has waved goodbye to three top execs; leading many to speculate that their departures have to do with magazines’ struggle to keep up. The industry is having a tough time adapting to the slowing economy and the changes that traditional media is being forced to make. First, Martha Stewart [...]