Rolling Stone Magazine Switching to a Smaller Size

[NFS4]

Boo!! I like the large format 🙁

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 11 (Reuters) - Rolling Stone magazine unveiled plans on Monday for a major design overhaul, scaling down its signature large-format pages to a standard magazine size in a bid to bolster advertising and sagging newsstand sales.

The U.S. pop culture magazine will end the oversized look that for more than 30 years has distinguished it from rival publications starting with an issue set to hit newsstands on Oct. 17.

"It feels to me just like a natural step for us to take," said Will Dana, managing editor at Rolling Stone. "It's always exciting to shake things up a bit and to grow and to do things differently."

Officials with Wenner Media, the magazine's publisher, said Rolling Stone's circulation has grown to an all-time high of nearly 1.5 million.

But single-copy sales on news racks slumped to 115,644 for the first six months of 2008, down from 119,735 for the same period in 2007, the company said.

"We've been challenged at the newsstand recently, which is an industry-wide trend, and the decline pretty much mirrors where we are vis-a-vis our competitors," Dana said.

The company expects the new format will boost single-copy sales because in the past the magazine's size has proved somewhat unwieldy for retailers to prominently display.

With the new format, the magazine's pages will be glued together instead of stapled, making it easier to include advertising supplements, said Beth Jacobson, a spokeswoman for Rolling Stone.

The redesign also will allow publishers to add 16 to 20 more pages of editorial content and to more easily run full-page ads, Wenner Media spokesman Mark Neschis said.

One of the few major U.S. magazines of the same size as the current Rolling Stone is the sports-oriented publication ESPN, an offshoot of the cable network, officials from Wenner said.

Rolling Stone began in 1967 in San Francisco, and the magazine is mainly dedicated to music and pop culture. Appearing on its cover has long been coveted by musicians around the world, and was even the subject of a hit song, "The Cover of The Rolling Stone," by Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show. (Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Steve Gorman)

http://www.reuters.com/article.../idUSN1140798420080812

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

I don't read it regularly, but the large format had a certain quality to it that lended itself well to RS and the layouts.

 

[Regs]

Oh. I thought they got bought out by some European country. That would of been big news.

 

[brxndxn]

LAME!!! I was pissed when WiReD went normal format..

Big huge magazines > normal magazines.. DUH.

 

[pyonir]

I put this at about #10891071 of my list of things to care about.

Yet I clicked on the thread and read it. Go me.

 

[andylawcc]

for those who complain about the switch, when is your last time buying one?

 

[pyonir]

Originally posted by: andylawcc
for those who complain about the switch, when is your last time buying one?

The last time i bought one was when Jen Aniston's ass was on the cover. 😀

 

[andylawcc]

Originally posted by: pyonir

Originally posted by: andylawcc
for those who complain about the switch, when is your last time buying one?

The last time i bought one was when Jen Aniston's ass was on the cover. 😀

mine was Christina Aguilera with the blue guitar 🙂

 

[darkswordsman17]

They're gonna shake things up by conforming to what everyone else is doing?

You know, I can't think of anyone I know that reads/gets Rolling Stone.

I do agree about the larger size. Magazines inevitably get bent to hell anyways, and the larger ones actually end up in better shape in the end.

 

[iamwiz82]

Why would they expect more sales from this? 😕

 

[Locut0s]

Not sure if it's a good idea from a marketing perspective as their magazine still stands out in the stands because of its size. But from a practical standpoint it's about time. As a retailer who sells a certain amount of magazines I can tell you that rolling stone has got to be one of the more awkward and annoying magazines to merchandise. And in a week it's one of the first to take on that worn out battered over read sagging look that most of the others don't get till near the end of their monthly cycles. It's always the one sagging down in the displays that no one know quite how to place.

 

[andylawcc]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
Why would they expect more sales from this? 😕

cut cost

 

[NFS4]

Originally posted by: andylawcc
for those who complain about the switch, when is your last time buying one?

I have a subscription which doesn't run out until July 12, 2012. I actually like the magazine for music/movies/politics.

It's actually one of the few magazine subscriptions that I have (the others being Esquire and GQ).

 

[scott916]

Internet killed the magazine star...

 

[EvilYoda]

Boooo, I like my RS sub. Although, part of me is happy about the switch because my latest travel bag (really small, just big enough for my 12" notebook) barely accommodates a Rolling Stone mag. Yay for changing to make me happy 😛

 

[NFS4]

Just got my new issues in the new format today. It's gonna take a while to get used to this.

 

[DangerAardvark]

Magazines? Like... made out of paper?

 

[PepePeru]

i used to work in the printing press where rolling stone, espn magazine, others were printed. I would have welcomed this change, had i still had the job.
My job was to move stacks of rolling stones that were sorted and bagged by zip codes from a conveyor belt and stacked on a pallet.
i was there about 2 weeks and said this 100.00 a week or whatever i was making part time was not remotely worth it....and i worked with FT - lifers.

worst. job. ever.