The Husni Report: New Magazine Launches in Q-1 of 2009 are UP…

167 news magazines appeared for the first time on the nation’s newsstands in the first quarter of 2009. This number represents 14 titles more than the 154 titles first published in 2007 and 13 titles more than the 153 titles first published in 2008. Call it what you want, but yet again the innovative media companies and entrepreneurs have shown a resiliency against all odds, and for that matter against the prophets of doom and gloom.

It is amazing, to see of late, how some media companies are quick to announce numbers of launches and death of magazines and how they are quickly joining the mourners of print in general and magazines in particular. Try to tell that to the folks at Reader’s Digest who just launched three new magazines, or the folks at Stampington Publishing company who just launched four new magazines, or the folks at Taunton Press who launched four new titles including two with DVDs included with the magazines.
The new magazines of 2009 included 61 titles with a stated regular frequency and 106 with no frequency stated. Compare that with 48 new magazines with a stated frequency in 2008 and 106 with no frequency stated. Amazing to say the least, is that in the worst of times American magazines will know that the best of magazines were launched in the worst of times. To paraphrase Charles Dickens, these are the worst of times. Let the new magazines roll off the presses and enjoy the images of the some of the new magazines launched in the month of March.