Being in the print & online magazine industry ourselves, we pay attention when John Porrett, MD of Unique Magazines, reports a fall in sales of business-related titles, but a significant rise in publications aimed at the “stay at home” customer.
John has monitored recent orders in view of the Corona situation, and he’s noticed a trend towards magazines aimed at domestic activities, with TV listings, women’s weeklies and comics all selling well.
“It would appear that the public are starting to plan ahead for a possible long stay in their homes due to the crisis that is affecting us all at the moment,” said John. “We’ve seen a marked increase in subscriptions of TV listings magazines reflecting the fact that people are doing what they can to make their time at home as bearable as possible.”
With schools closed, subscriptions to educational establishments and libraries have dwindled while publications aimed at children have grown.
Last month, Unique Magazines launched a comic club for kids after finding that fun, colourful and humorous stories and activities were the perfect antidote to addictive tech for young people and their parents. The Comic Club is aimed at seven to 11-year-olds and is a subscription service which delivers high quality, hand-selected age-appropriate magazines and activity ideas direct to the door every month.
“Now more than ever, parents need as much help as possible to occupy and educate their children while they stay at home. Our team are working hard to supply activities that can be done as a family based on the information in the comics we deliver”
John established his own magazine distribution business in 2009, and from their base in Gateshead, Unique Magazines now delivers a catalogue of more than 3,500 magazines, in different languages, to thousands of readers in 160 countries.
