We've had some discussions here about the print industry and magazine sales, particular about how a new print version of Dragon or a new magazine would do. As I said before, the industry is in a bad way. Here's an article.

Newsstand sales of US magazines drop 12 percent
by: Sara Gandy

NEW YORK (AP) - Newsstand sales of U.S. magazines are continuing to fall.

An industry group says single-copy sales fell 12 percent in the first half of this year compared with the same period in 2008.
Total circulation, including subscriptions, edged down 1 percent.

The figures are being released Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, based on 521 magazines that gave circulation numbers for both years.

The total circulation of those titles stands at roughly 340 million.

About 36 million are sold at newsstands and other retailers but account for a disproportionate amount of publishers' revenue because subscriptions are discounted.

Cosmopolitan is still the most popular magazine at newsstands, though sales fell nearly 8 percent to 1.6 million.
(Copyright Associated Press, All Rights Reserved)

http://www.9news.com/money/article.aspx?storyid=122347&catid=344

Seanchai

Magazine prices are disgusting, however... making them one of the least cost effective forms of entertainment available.

Seriously: I can buy a standard magazine for slightly more than the cost of a movie ticket, read it in about half an hour, seeing MOSTLY ads.... Or I can just buy the movie ticket, which will occupy me for anywhere from an hour and a half to three hours, not to mention being then able to discuss said movie with friends for some time after, vs the magazine articles which rarely generate any real discussion.

For the cost of a magazine I can pay for a Cinemax subscription for a month (as I did for one of my rentors recently...).

Hell, I can buy a DVD from a grocery store for the same price as your average magazine.

I have several year long subscriptions, each about $10. Check out Wired on Amazon.com, for example. Newsstand prices...well, unless I'm flying and stuck, I don't bother.

Seanchai

The last time I was at Books A Million, I noticed there were around 20 different Tattoo magazines.  Yet, there's no room for any rpg mags.  

Nobody buys magazines, they just read them in stores. At least at the store I work at 90% or more of our magazines are returned to the vendor.

I think Magazine vendors should re-organize their business. Sell a newsstand to stores as an attraction rather then as vendible product.