Media and Entertainment

The digitization of content is an ongoing trend and issue for publishers. The old saying “adapt or die” applies directly here. The publishing companies that faced the challenge and are still alive created online content and adapted their products for laptops, tablets, and smartphones. They’ve strategized ways to keep revenue flowing, such as through digital subscriptions. The magazine industry was also hit hard during the recession (more than 1,500 magazines went out of print between 2007 and 2009) and has since continued to recover. The research group MediaFinder reported that 82 magazines folded in 2012, which isn’t too terrible considering that 152 magazines closed their doors the previous year. The very last issue of the print edition of Newsweek was published on December 31, 2012, ending an 80-year print run. It had been incorporated into the Daily Beast, a news and commentary Web site that closed its doors in 2013. On a positive note, recently there has been a slight increase in the number of magazines in operation in the United States, growing to 7,218 in 2018, up from 7,176 the previous year. The research group Statista reported that the printed magazine continues to be popular, although the average time most people spend on print media is about 21 minutes.