Physical magazines are making a comeback, with or without readers

afr.com:

First it was a resurgence of vinyl records. Then film photography. Now print magazines are fashionable again, relaunching in Australia and attracting millions in luxury advertising revenue after years out of business. But while they’re back, it is with a different audience, purpose and model.

Are Media is preparing to relaunch a print version of Elle, senior sources with knowledge of the company’s plans confirmed. Switzer Publishing confirmed it was looking to bring back Men’s Health and Women’s Health in print next year. Print editions of Harper’s Bazaar, once licensed by Australian Consolidated Press and then Bauer Media, were taken on by Switzer in 2021. Forbes Australia hit the shelves locally in late 2022.

Annabelle Hickson published Galah magazine from remote northern NSW in late 2020, printing 8000 copies for her first edition, which she published after moving from the city and getting fed up with the stream of negative stories published about country life.

Annabelle Hickson started Galah magazine in the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

“I didn’t know about newsletter platforms back then, that might have been more profitable,” she says. “But we get lots of feedback saying how much they love the tactile, the paper. They love being able to pick it up. I love it; it doesn’t beep, it doesn’t need charging. You can read it in the bath.”

There has been multimillion-dollar uptick in magazine advertising after a 70 per cent collapse between 2016 and 2021. Data from Standard Media Index, which measures how much Australian advertising agencies spend on different types of media, shows an almost 20 per cent jump in the amount spent with print magazines over the past couple of years.

In the first six months of 2023,