The Guardian's Organ Grinder blog posted a few comments on ABC plummets amongst high-profile consumer magazines in Is anyone happy with the magazine circulations?. I found this comment amusing:
Pffffff. I know you try your best, but "extensive"? C'mon - it's yet more Loaded, Cosmo, Heat and FHM, with a bit of Prospect/New Stoatsperson thrown in. As for the specialist magazines that fill 80% of the shelves at WHS? Nary a mention. Oh, I'm sorry, you did mention Golf Monthly. There are a hundred fierce circulation battles going on in the specialist press. Get out there and cover them.
The guy has a point. People seem remarkably uninterested in writing about the world of specialist magazines, be they business or consumer magazines. I wonder if some form of "inherited importance" is at work here: people want to write about national, general interest subjects, because that makes them of national, general-interest importance.
The "long tail" theory hasn't yet taken root in coverage of UK media, because very few people are talking about specialist media, despite the huge numbers of journalists and readers involved in these titles - and the potential of internet community development they present.
Maybe I should write about this a little more…
