ABSTRACT
With national and global ad spend data evidencing a consistent trend in the decline of investment in magazines in relation to other media choices, the impact this is having on the magazine industry is significant. When examining forecasting and trend analysis, the future also remains bleak. All logic dictates that the magazine will be squeezed to the point of extinction as a media form and yet, despite all the indicators, there remains hope. The first part of this chapter lays the groundwork by defining what is an advertisement and how magazines make money through the selling of space in which these ads are placed. It examines the history of magazine advertising and, in particular, how the reading experience cultivates a sense of long-term brand building: both for the magazine as brand and the brands featured. The second part of the chapter charts the ongoing struggles that magazines are facing to attract advertisers, and how they are simultaneously countering this with new promotional formats. The rise of convergence culture and the emergence of a fragmented media landscape problematises the traditional revenue generating model outlined in the first part. However, by examining the concept of the ‘attention economy’ we can see a new line of attack that the magazine can exploit. It concludes with a short thought piece on the future of magazine advertising with reference to broader industry trends, consumer media engagement and the challenges of external factors, including sustainability and COVID-19.
