Why are global magazine sales so high?

New developments and curiosities from a changing global media landscape: People, Spaces, Deliberation brings trends and events to your attention that illustrate that tomorrow’s media environment will look very different from today’s and will have little resemblance to yesterday’s.

Much has been said about the decline of print newspapers, but the fate of the magazine industry is less well-known. In a reversal of recent downward trends, total magazine revenue is expected to increase from $97.1 billion in 2013 to $98.1 billion in 2018, according to PwC’s Global Entertainment and Media Outlook, 2014-2018. Similar to the newspaper industry, the Internet is also affecting magazines, with digital advertising revenues accounting for much of the increases in earnings.

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Emerging markets like China, India, Russia and South Africa will also see growth in trade magazines, which are increasingly popular as local businesses seek information on international markets. In fact, revenue in emerging countries for trade magazines will be worth more than US$1bn by 2018, and the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) will be 0% or more heading towards 2018.

Other countries will also see growth in trade magazine revenues: Turkey will have a CAGR of 5.3%; Hungary 3.7%; and Peru, Venezuela and Argentina will all see growth around 6.8% CAGR.

This post first appeared on The World Bank’s People, Spaces, Deliberation Blog

Author: Roxanne Bauer is a consultant to the World Bank’s External and Corporate Relations, Operational Communications department (ECROC).

Image: A woman reads a book at her open air book store in Skopje April 24, 2014. REUTERS/Ognen Teofilovski.