Research Task One : How has the UK consumer magazine industry evolved?

Due to many significant changes in the world in over 20 years, the circulation of the UK magazine industry has been expanded. Magazine industry has suffered from a decline in print copies and sales drop. In 2019 the country had to stay isolated because of the pandemic Covid-19. Less people could attempt in  buying any print copies, so based on that barrier, the online platforms started to develop more information by creating online websites, which is much easier to access. Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, X replaced physical magazines and also became a competition for the magazine industry. While visual platform like Instagram has developed a lot, physical copies have decline in sales massively  The audiences now predominantly interact with its brand through its websites and social media. So, whenever audience want to known or see, they can find it online without making unnecessary effort in buying a magazine. 

Based on analysis of the total number of print copies, in the 2000s 1.6 billion magazines were circulated in the UK, although in the recent years the number of magazines circulation have reached its bottom of 565 million. Number of consumer magazine titles had fallen from 700 in 2000s, to 241 in 2020. The circulation of music magazines and magazines for man been most impacted as its sales have dropped to 1.8 million between 2017 and 2021, which is 90%. From that, we can highlight the fact that total circulation of consumer magazines has been decline and impacted massively. 

Because of digital platforms dominating over physical magazines, many consumer magazines have eventually decided to shut down, as their profit didn't sponsor in sufficient values and the salaries were impacted as well. 

Subsequently, digital subscriptions are growing rapidly. We can't deny the fact that pandemic-19 did boost digital subscriptions and was one of the main factors of decline of consumer magazines. Some magazines purchased better recognition and boosted their profit by completely going digital. 

Overall, what can be emphasised, is that magazine industry currently is not in much demand as before, because of digital platform progressively increasing, which shadows physical copies.