Anthem Publishing was founded in 2002 and now runs ten magazine brands across health, music, wellbeing and food. Here chief executive and co-founder Jon Bickley explains why magazine publishing – even when it comes to print – does not have to be a story of decline.
I felt my inner Mark Twain twitch when I read Press Gazette’s newsletter headline about declining revenue at Hearst last week which included the phrase “the end of the magazine age”.
Just as Twain said reports of his death were an exaggeration, our experience at Anthem and in many areas across the magazine industry, are quite contrary to ‘the end’.
As a consumer publishing business Anthem has grown sales every year since the pandemic by an average of 10%, reaching our highest ever turnover in 2024/25. This has happened not through a dramatic pivot away from traditional fundamentals, but through ratcheting up activity on multiple fronts and taking advantage of some of the unique strengths our industry still holds over many other competing media.
Most eye-catchingly our biggest driver of growth has been at the newsstand.
Covid accelerated everyone’s flight to digital and subscriptions – us included – but as normality resumed we quickly realised we were leaving money on the table by ignoring trend-led publishing. So we adopted a two-tier strategy of continuing to invest in revenue diversification on our monthly “engagement” brands, but also wholeheartedly embracing the newsstand and single issue sales for our “retail” brands.
Having previously seen success with fandom publishing for Harry Styles and BTS [the band], we were perfectly placed to capitalise on Taylor-mania. As Swifties scrambled for tickets and physical mementoes of dedication to their idol, we brought creative publishing to bear with products ranging from dress up dolls to search and find picture mags, timed to coincide with the Eras Tour juggernaut’s progress around the world.
Book publishers and their channels simply don’t have the fleet of foot to do this, but we had willing contributors, retailers and distributors keen to share in this great opportunity. And of course we weren’t alone, with Future prominent among publishers at the same table soon joined by OK! and Hello!.
The picture has been similar with other trends.
When we first considered the growth of air fryers in the UK there was only a smattering of self-published air fryer recipe books available on Amazon and barely anything in shops. The “fast print” nature of magazines meant we were able to hit the shelves within a couple of months and rapidly build a regular series of issues that became our biggest newsstand magazine in 2024.
Again, competitors joined the party, but it was notable how books were 12-18 months behind the curve with heavyweights like Jamie and Pinch of Nom lagging. There are many more examples in the same vein.
As magazine print publishers we have unique advantages that it’s been all too easy to forget: access to UK and global magazine distribution networks that enable you to reach market relatively cheaply within a couple of months; a content creation ecosystem that is enthusiastic and affordable; and consumers who will pay for dedicated titles that celebrate and enable their passions.
Yes, the era of the magazine as provider of news, gossip and casual entertainment may be past its peak, but if you look at the market in a different way and think about what readers want to buy from you at today’s newsstand, you can see there’s still a vibrant market of consumers who will pay for quality publications at premium prices when you give them just what they want and when they want it.
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