More books, but profit? That's another thing

Over the past five years, according to the new 2003-04 Statscan data, there have been about 357 net new magazines of all kinds.

• 72% are under 50,000 circulation per issue
• 28% are less than 20,000
• 11% less than 5,000

2003 -04	<5,000	5,000 – 19,999	20,000 – 49,999	50,000 – 99,999	100k+	All
Profit	589	465	268	76	92	1,490
Not	420	259	119	52	43	893
Total	1,009	724	387	128	135	2,383

In total, the ratio of unprofitable titles remains steady at about 37%.

But for the smallest magazines (<5,000),the number of unprofitable titles went from 38% to 42% between 1998-99 and now.

And for the largest magazines (100,000+), in 1998-99 25% were unprofitable; now it is 32%.

So, there are more titles but also more publishers having a tough time making money.