Not dead yet; Mr. Magazine's startup tally shows amazing innovation

The gleeful reporting of the decline of the magazine industry has some antidotes and they are facts. Samir (Mr. Magazine) Husni is the source of some of those facts, most notably a running tally of magazine startups that has much greater reliability and depth of analysis than other sources. And he doesn't pull any punches about the reporters and pundits who witter on about magazines' decline; he likens them to old West villains who force you to dig your own grave, then throw you in.

On his website, he has just published some analysis of last year's magazine launches in the U.S.:

• Total New Launches in 2008: 697
• Launches with a Quarterly frequency or more 196
• Average Cover Price $8.10, yes you read that right…almost $5.00 more than the established magazines
• Average Subscription Price $28.05, imagine that real price for the cost of the magazines and of course your receive fewer issues (4 or 6 issues for that price).. compare that with 52 issues for an average of $20.
• Average Advertising Pages 12.34, way less than the 50/50 split…it is more like 10% of the entire magazine…we are back in the business of selling content first and charging for it the fair price without subsidies…
• Average Total Pages 111.1