Independent magazine survey #1

Ever wondered whether the magazines we champion pay their way?

We know the indie scene is in a healthy state creatively, but how successful are the magazines as businesses? We’re always being asked questions about this, but until now there’s been no research to look to for answers.

So we’re excited to post a first headline figure from our new survey of publishers, the first of its kind.

We recently sent a series of questions to publishers. To date we’ve recieved over 170 replies, in what we believe is the first formal survey of indie magazine makers.

At this stage we’re sharing the details only with those publishers who have responded, as we develop the research and see where it leads us. But we will be sharing a few headline details here on the Journal.

We start today with a breakdown of how many magazines make money and lose money. The assumption here is generally that indie magazines struggle to cover their costs; our first figures show something different.

The headline here is that across the 170 respondents – magazines of a wide variety of print run and length of time publishing – 67%, two thirds, either make a profit or cover their costs.

This is just the beginning of the research project, there’s a lot more work to be done, but I hope you find this first figure intriguing.

We’ll be sharing more research headlines here over the coming months.

RESEARCH ©2021 MAGCULTURE