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Many titles are sold on the newsstand, but it’s the performance of 10 publications—the top 10 checkout titles—that define the market.

Eight years ago, the top 10 titles accounted for nearly half (46.8 percent) of the unit sales of all audited publications. In the second half of 2008 the top 10 titles still accounted for about half (46.3 percent) of unit sales for all audited publications.

The unit sales impact of the top 10 titles has remained stable, yet the makeup, frequency and cover pricing of these publications has dramatically changed.

A comparison of top the 10 titles from the second half of 2000 to the second half of 2008 helps illuminate the effect of these changes. Several distinct developments should More...

In the last week the fragile newsstand distribution system has essentially broken down. Two of the four major wholesalers have, in effect, exited the business. Publishers and the remaining wholesalers are scrambling to pick up the scattered pieces. If this wasn’t enough, the recently-released second-half 2008 ABC and BPA newsstand sales data revealed (based on a preliminary analysis) that the unit sales of audited publications fell a devastating 14.9 percent and the revenue declined a record 6.7 percent.  

The story behind the dysfunctional newsstand distribution business is so convoluted that it makes Tim Geithner’s s More...

Thank goodness for the Anderson family. Their Anderson News Company can be counted on for keeping the fascinating newsstand fable alive with their periodic threats of Armageddon. What would the industry do without them?

Well, the magazine industry might soon have to face that reality—and it’s an unpleasant one.

Truth be known, many of Anderson’s wounds are self-inflicted. In the 1990s, the Andersons saw the dramatic changes occurring in the magazine distribution landscape as an opportunity to greatly expand their successful regional wholesaling operations. They were banking on synergies of scale and a core belief in t More...

RELATED: Newsweek Mulls Dramatic Drop in Circulation

As we all know by now U.S. magazine circulation has been greatly expanded over the last 20 years to meet rising advertising opportunities. This growth has been achieved largely by acquiring a much greater percentage of "non-renewable circ" than publishers had previously employed.  The expansion of "non-renewable circ" combined with reduced reader demand (read: Internet) has lowered circulation profitability and reduced "reader quality" for nearly all U.S. magazines.  However, the effect More...