Research into the Magazine Industry: Metro in Focus, Wednesday September 26th 2012

Is the Internet the NME at the gates?

1) How many copies did the NME sell at its peak, and when was this peak?

2) How many copies does it sell now?

3) How many unique users does NME.com have monthly?

4) What might this suggest about the future of magazine print publishing?

5) How have Q Magazine’s sales recently fallen?

6) How have Kerrang! Magazine’s sales dropped recently?

7) Why was NME considered such an important publication before the advent of the

Internet?

8) Why – and how – did the Internet affect sales of the magazine?

9) What are some reasons that Mike Williams thinks that magazine publishing might be

becoming irrelevant?

10) What does Mike Williams suggest might be the way to improve magazine sales?

11) What does NME still have going for it?

12) How does Lucy O’Brien suggest sales of music magazine publishing could be

improved?

13) In which area of journalism does she think the magazine is no longer successful, and

why?

14) Why does Mike Williams disagree?

15) How might the internet be, as Lucy O’Brien says, “a positive tool” for the music

magazine industry?

KEY QUESTION

How has what you have learnt from this article affected the planning of your magazine? i.e.

in order to sell the largest possible number of copies, what are you going to have to offer in

your print magazine?