The New York Times has an interesting look at the economics of modern magazine publishing. Budget Living is closing its doors. Despite being very popular with its readers (more than 500,000 subscribers) today’s magazine publishing environment did not allow it to survive.
“Its demise raises a question: If a magazine as smart and cunning as Budget Living could not break through the newsstand, is the independent magazine no longer viable?” asks Times reporter David Carr. “With major publishers creating magazines willy-nilly in every available niche and putting huge marketing and circulation muscle behind them, it now seems almost impossible to be the little-magazine-that-could. If Rolling Stone, Outside or Wired, all successful magazines that were started on a whim and prayer, were cooked up today, would they live long and meaningful existences or would they suffer Budget Living’s fate?”
