Rolling Stone Switching to A Smaller Magazine
The NY Times is reporting that Rolling Stone Magazine will be undergoing a face lift on October 30th. Rolling Stone, whose large format magazine has stood out on magazine racks for more than three decades will adopt the standard size used by all but a few magazines.
Jann Wenner founder, publisher, editor and general guiding force behind the nation’s biggest music magazine, said…
All you’re getting from that large size is nostalgia.
But as he knows well, nostalgia is a powerful marketing force, as is a package that instantly evokes not only the product, but an era. Rolling Stone’s readership, is bigger than it has ever been and has a surprisingly young median age, in the early 30s, according to market research firms.
Rolling Stone, is published every other week, has paid circulation in the United States of more than 1.4 million, the highest in its history, but its single-copy sales have fallen from 189,000 in 1999, to 132,000 last year. Magazine racks at bookstores, newsstands and checkout counters tend to be made for the standard dimensions, and if Rolling Stone is there, it is often on a high or low shelf, out of eye level, or even on its side or folded over.
Along with the change in size, Rolling Stone will switch to heavier, glossy paper and sleeker page designs, and it will be glued rather than stapled — “perfect bound” instead of “saddle stitched,” in magazine lingo — giving it a flat spine rather than a tapered edge. In all, the revisions make for a more professional, more grown-up look.
Magazine size has become increasingly standardized, at around 8 by 11 inches, give or take a fraction. Rolling Stone, at 10 by 11 3/4 inches, is, like ESPN and W, one of the few large-circulation magazines left that are significantly taller and wider.
To save money on paper, many newspapers and magazines have taken to printing smaller pages, fewer pages or both. But Rolling Stone says it will spend more and print more, not less: in addition to using more expensive paper and binding, it plans to add 16 to 20 pages per issue.
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