Time Inc., Hearst Magazines And Condé Nast

Layoffs, consolidation, and restructuring are plaguing the headlines as major publishers Time Inc., Hearst Magazines and Condé Nast are struggling to stay prosperous in a world where the popularity of print media is skyrocketing downward. According to data from October 2017 by the technology and strategy consulting firm Activate, the average American spends only four percent of their media consumption hours with print, compared to twenty percent on personal computers and twenty-eight percent on mobile (Sherman, BoF). As previously reported in The New York Times, smaller publishers such as Rodale are also feeling the burn of the declining print business which caused the family-owned publisher of Runner’s World and Men’s Health to be acquired

falling 3.4% on a day where the Dow Jones industrial average topped 23,000 for the first time, the idea of change was floating in the minds for the top executives of Time Inc. (Kelly, NYPost). To combat the struggling state of the print industry, Time Inc. cut 200 jobs and introduced a restructuring plan for the company. Hearst Magazines followed a similar plan of attack with having a hiring slowdown and tightening budgets across the board (Steigrad, WWD). However, Condé Nast took a very interesting approach in fighting off the decline in print media. They accepted it. With the first two quarterly editions of Teen Vogue only averaging about 22,590 single-copy sales, versus an average of 47,689 per issue in the first half of 2015, Condé Nast realized the consumers of the magazine were not necessarily avid spenders on print media anymore. As of October of 2017, Teen Vogue's average monthly unique visitors online for the year were 8.27 million. In what I believe to be an extremely smart move, Condé Nast decided to end the print publication of Teen Vogue, in addition to shrinking their print presence of GQ, Glamour, Allure and Architectural Digest from 12 issues to 11, Bon Appétit from 11 issues to 10 and W and Condé Nast Traveler from 10 issues to 8 (Sherman, BoF). Condé Nast is not completely abandoning the print industry, they are realizing and accepting the change people are having over to digital media. Furthermore, Condé Nast has launched a

I do not foresee any growth in the way consumers read print media. Due to the changing habits of the millennials and generation Z, print media will continue its fall in the shadows of digital media. For publishers to stay alive during this time they must consolidate, restructure and terminate the print publications of their underperforming magazines. If a publisher wishes to not merely stay afloat but thrive during this time, I suggest they enter into the digital media space and fast. In the future, I believe smaller publishers such as Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Bonnier and Werner Media will become acquired by one of the three giant publishers simply because the publishing world is becoming too cut-throat. Regardless, I cannot imagine Time Inc., Heart Magazines nor Condé Nast ever going under in the future, regardless of how troubled the print industry is