The magazine market - Italy

1.2 The world market will recover from the shock due to the pandemic

The global newspaper and magazine market is expected to grow from $***.** billion in **** to $***.** billion in ****, a CAGR of +*.* percent. The growth is mainly due to the fact that companies are reorganizing their operations and recovering from the impact of COVID-**, which previously led to restrictive containment measures involving social distance, smart-working and business closures, resulting in operational difficulties. The market is expected to reach $***.** billion in ****, with a growth rate of +*.* percent.

Marché mondial des magazines et des périodiques Monde, ****-****, milliards de $ USD Source: ****

Detail and explanation of forecast

The increasing use of social media for communication and information sharing is expected to drive demand for newspapers and magazines, especially in digital format. As more and more time is spent on social networking sites, news articles are increasingly shared in digital format. In ****, about *.** billion people were using social media, indicating widespread use of social media. Increased use of social media is expected to boost the market growth of newspaper and magazine publishers in the future.

The Coronavirus outbreak (***), as this is a "black swan" event and is not related to underlying or ongoing weaknesses in the market or the global economy.

Newspaper and magazine publishers can gain ...

1.3 The national print market and the share of magazines

As of February ****, there are *** titles in the Italian press as a whole, broken down as follows:

There are ** daily titles There are ** weekly titles There are ** monthly newspapers

We will analyze the various titles offered in the supply analysis section. In the meantime, we consider weekly and monthly periodicals as part of the magazine market, with ** titles, or ** percent of the total titles offered. In terms of total paid circulation, according to data for the same month reported by Press Diffusion Assessments, magazines thus account for ** percent of the total print media in Italy (***).

Thus, magazines represent an important part of the Italian written press. However, as we can read it in the following graphs, the paid circulation of magazines also suffers from declining sales, and continues to decline in ****. From October **** to February ****, it decreased by -*.* percent from *,*** million units sold to *,*** million units sold.

Évolution de la diffusion payée de la presse magazine (***) Italie, ****-****, en millions d'unités vendues Source: ****

The graph below shows the decline in total paid circulation with details of periodicals.

Évolution de la diffusion payée de la presse magazine, hebdomadaire et mensuelle (***) Italie, ****-****, en millions d'unités ...

1.4 Magazine and periodical publishing in Italy and the decline in advertising revenue

The following data are for the activity registered under ATECO **.** Publishing of magazines and periodicals. We immediately note a fairly sharp decline since ****: the sector's national turnover has fallen from €**** million in **** to €**** million in ****, experiencing a -**% change in only * years.

Chiffre d'affaires de l'édition de magazines et périodiques Italie, ****-****, en millions d'euros Source: ****

strong underlying downward trend

Variation annuelle du chiffre d'affaires publicitaire dans la presse magazine, par périodicité Italie, ****-****, % Source: ****

Let's look in more detail at how this phenomenon impacts the entire press in the table below:

2.1 Most-read weeklies and monthlies in Italy: titles and categories

In the tables below we see the details of the categories of magazines Italians like the most, analyzing the February **** sales for weeklies and monthlies.

The most successful weekly magazines are TV, women's, news, and gossip magazines, while the most popular monthly magazines are automotive, travel, and interior design magazines.

Source: ****

Source: ****

2.2 Question typology: the Italian reader

The age of readers

To analyze the type of Italian magazine readers, we take data from seven of the most widely read magazines in the country and representative of the most popular categories. In the graphs below, we read that seniors over ** years of age make up the majority of weekly magazine readers (***).

Répartition du lectorat des hebdomadaires les plus lus, par tranche d'âge Italie, ****, % Source: ****

Répartition du lectorat des mensuels les plus lus, par tranche d'âge Italie, ****, % Source: ****

The socio-professional categories of readers

According to the same Audipress report, we also note that the vast majority of Italian readers of weekly magazines are retired, which coincides perfectly with the data on the age of readers, and that the middle classes are those who read monthly magazines the most.

Répartition du lectorat des hebdomadaires les plus lus, par catégorie socio-professionnelle Italie, ****, % Source: ****

Répartition du lectorat des mensuels les plus lus, par catégorie socio-professionnelle Italie, ****, % Source: ****

2.3 Trend: The transition to digital print consumption has begun

The biggest trend we can see, in Italy as well as worldwide, is the digital consumption of print and magazines. In the graph below, we can read the huge increase in visits to the main online news and magazine platforms: the most important long-term changes have been in the GEDI and Mondadori publishing groups. In addition to the tenfold increase in **** due to the different lockdowns, from **** to **** the average unique users increased from *.* million to * million per day for GEDI (***). This increase in visits are also due to the extension of the offerings of these platforms that have invested in the market by creating more blogs and online magazines, however the underlying trend remains.

Évolution des visites sur les principales plateformes d'information et de magazine en ligne Italie, ****-****, millions de visiteurs quotidiens (***) Source: ****

Here, below, are the details of the sites edited in **** by the groups mentioned in the graph above:

Ciaopeople: Cookist, Fanpage, Ohga Caltagirone editore: Corriere Adriatico, Il Gazzettino, Il Mattino, Il Messaggero, Leggo, Nuovo Quotidiano di Puglia GEDI Group: Alfemminile, Business Insider Italia, Huffington Post Italia, La Repubblica, La Stampa.it, Le Scienze, Limes, Mashable Italia, GNN Newspapers - Gedi News Network Mondadori: alterVISTA, Donna ...

3.1 Newspaper printing in Italy

The following data refer to the market registered by the Italian government under ATECO **.** "Printing of newspapers," which includes the printing of other periodicals, published at least four times a week.

We note that the sector has been experiencing a steady decrease in its turnover for several years : from ***.* million euros in total in ****, it went to ***.* million euros in total in ****, which represents a change of -** percent. In ** years, print turnover has thus halved. This can be explained by a mixture of events that follow one another: the decline in advertising revenues and paid circulation of print media in Italy, already analyzed in subsections *.* and *.*, but above all the reader and publisher transition to digital, analyzed in subsection *.*.

Chiffre d'affaires de l'impression de journaux Italie, ****-****, en millions d'euros Source: ****

From ** enterprises in ****, the newspaper printing sector has gone to only ** in ****, a change of -** percent, while the number of employees has also halved, from **** in **** to **** in **** with a significant change of -** percent.

Effectif salarié dans le secteur de l'impression de journaux Italie, ****-****, unités Source: ****

The geographical breakdown of the sector

The geographic data shown in the map below refer to ATECO heading ** "Printing ...

3.2 The retail trade of magazines

The following data refer to ATECO **.** "Retail sale of newspapers and stationery in specialized establishments," which includes retail trade in newspapers, magazines and periodicals.

Turnover in the sector has also halved for the past ** years from €*** million total in **** to €**** million in **** for a change of -** percent, while the number of enterprises has decreased by -** percent and employment by -** percent over the same period

Chiffre d'affaires du commerce au détail de journaux Italie, ****-****, en millions d'euros Source: ****

Nombre d'entreprises et effectif salarié du commerce au détail de journaux Italie, ****-****, unités Source: ****

3.3 Distribution channels

There are basically three distribution channels for magazines, listed in the table below:

[***]

4.1 The Italian supply of journals

The supply of magazines in Italy is very diverse. We can divide magazines into traditional categories:

4.2 Market prices charged and production costs

The evolution of the consumer index for newspapers, magazines and periodicals

The price index related to daily newspapers has not varied that much in the last year, but it has increased in total by +**.*% from **** to ****, which represents a slow but steady increase. On the other hand, as for magazines, their price has increased less, only +*% from **** to the present.

Index des prix à la consommation pour les journaux, magazines et périodiques Italie, ****-****, index base ***=**** Source: ****

Prices charged on the market

We list in the table below the prices of some of the most popular weekly and monthly magazine subscriptions in Italy, which vary widely (***).

Production costs

Listed below are the costs involved in producing and selling an independent magazine via direct sale (***):

Printing and binding. this is one of the main costs, accounting for about ** percent of the retail price and can vary greatly depending on the quality chosen for the product (***). VAT, which is * percent on periodical publishing in Italy. Author payment is a cost that varies widely, depending on the number of authors and their services (***). It is worth on average ** percent of the price to the public, and is often calculated in absolute value, i.e., ...

5.1 Italian law

The current regulatory framework governing the press distribution sector throughout the country is established by Legislative Decree No. *** of April **, ****, on the "Reorganization of the circulation system of the daily and periodical press, pursuant to Article * of Law No. *** of April **, ****."

The provisions contained in this decree partly replaced those contained in the Law of August *, ****, No. ***, bearing the "Discipline of publishing enterprises and provisions for publishing," as amended.

In particular, the decree on the distribution of daily and periodical press repealed Article ** on "Authorizations for sale" of the aforementioned Law No. ***/****.

Legislative Decree No. ***/**** was adopted on the basis of what was regulated in Article *, of Law No. *** of April **, ****, on "New regulations on points of sale for the daily and periodical press," according to which the Government was delegated to issue a special legislative decree, within twenty-four months of the entry into force of Law No. ***/****, aimed at reorganizing the regulatory structure of the distribution of the press, both daily and periodical, subjecting to a period of experimentation the activity of selling daily newspapers and periodicals carried out at certain commercial outlets indicated by Article * of Law No. ***/****.

Full details can be accessed at this link.

6.1 Segmentation of actors

• Mondadori Media
• Cairo Editore
• GEDI Gruppo Editoriale
• Hearst Magazines Italia
• Gruppo 24
• ClassEditori