Buyers: Shakeout’s coming in celeb titles

A shakeout is coming in the celebrity magazine category, and it will happen in the next year, perhaps even as soon as the next six months.

The magazine that will likely be shaken out? American Media's OK!.

That's according to a Media Life survey of media buyers and planners asking them to weigh in on the once-burgeoning category, where six of eight titles saw newsstand sales decline during the six-month period ended June 30.

Asked whether there will be a shakeout in the category, 82.1 percent of Media Life readers answered yes, and just 17.9 percent said no.

Asked when that shakeout will come, most, 53.5 percent, predicted that it will be within the next year.

Just over 31 percent picked the next six months, 12.6 percent picked the next nine months, and 2.4 percent picked the next three months.

Media people generally agreed on which magazine would fold first. Just over 58 percent picked OK!, with the No. 2 choice, Life & Style, getting 26.1 percent of the vote.

Star received 6.7 percent and In Touch 6 percent. No other magazine got more than 3 percent.

Media Life then asked readers to pick what qualities are most important in helping a magazine survive.

Interestingly, readers said that editorial quality, not deep corporate pockets or a smart internet strategy, is by far the most important factor in whether a magazine thrives.

And on that measure, the category leader, People, is doing the best job.

Media Life asked buyers which magazine has the best, most interesting and most accurate stories, and 46.2 percent chose People, which has the largest circulation and the most ad pages in the category.

In Touch came in second at 19.2 percent, with Us Weekly third at 17.7 percent. Life & Style, at 13.8 percent, was the only other magazine with more than 3 percent.

On the flip side, readers voted OK!, the magazine they see as most likely to fold, saying it was the worst in terms of quality, accuracy and story copycatting. It received 47.3 percent of the vote.

Star was second at 21.7 percent, Life & Style third at 13.2 percent and In Touch fourth at 10.1 percent. No other magazine received more than 5 percent of the vote.

Finally, as to whether readers foresee a rebound in the celebrity category to the heady days of five years ago, when ad pages and circulation were booming, the answer is no.

More than half of readers said they do not believe a rebound is coming, with 39.4 percent predicting the recovery will take more than a year.

Just 11.4 percent predicted that the turnaround will happen sooner for celebrity titles than for the rest of the magazine industry, which has suffered from ad page and circulation declines as well.
 

Tags: ad pages, buyers, celeb titles, celebrities, celebrity magazines, circulation, decline, Life Style, magazine closures, magazines, media, media life, ok weekly, people