Regional Magazines Dominate, News Titles Down

Regionals once again outnumber any other category of magazines and have more than 1,126 titles in 2008, according to the latest edition of The National Directory of Magazines, writes MarketingCharts. Other magazine categories at the top of the list are Medicine, which has 1,119 titles, and Ethnic, with 952 titles. Regional magazines also ranked #1 last year in number of titles, with 1,138. The president of Oxbridge Communications, publisher of the National Directory of Magazines, said regional magazines capitalize on the fascination with things local and also benefit from strong local advertising. Many regional magazines are also pitched to an upscale audience making them doubly attractive to readers and advertisers. Looking at magazine growth trends for the 5 years between 2003 and 2008, number of home magazine titles jumped from 83 to 241; snow and ice sports magazines rose from 51 to 106; and nursing magazines are up from 92 to 177. News and management publications show the steepest 5-year declines, with news magazines down 39% (from 75 to 46) and management magazines down 32% (from 127 to 86).