The decline and fall of magazines

Like newspapers, magazines have been in a steady slide, but now, like newspapers, they seem to have reached the edge of the cliff. Last week, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported that newsstand circulation in the first half of the year was down almost 10 percent. When 10 percent of your retail buyers depart over the course of a year, something fundamental is at work…

For people like Mr. Diller — or, more grandly, the folks over at Time Warner — who run public companies, continued investment in magazines is going to be a little tough to explain. The best case story involves investing a lot right now in the hope that someday, years from now, the businesses will stabilize. That doesn’t sound like a very attractive place to store capital.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what you put on the cover of your magazine if no one will look at you. A few weeks ago, I was in a busy doctor’s office with a dozen others, absently paging through the magazines on the table. The table in front of us was stacked with the pride of American publishing, all manner of topics and fancy covers yelling for attention. Ever the intrepid media reporter, I looked up from scanning Bon Appétit to see what other people were interested in. A mother and a daughter were locked in conversation, but everyone else was busy reading — their phones.