Resource Guides
Publishing Industry
Newsletter
Publishing House Research - Resource Guides
Publishing Industry Resource Guide - Periodicals
The Audit Bureau
of Circulations
The Audit Bureau of Circulation conducts third party audits
on its publishing members, about 2,400 U.S. and Canadian periodical
publishers, and distributes a variety of products. They offer annual
audited circulation figures and reader profiles, as well as unaudited
semi-annual publisher's statements. Circulation figures are free in
the e-Circ area, and reader profiles are free. Some material is available
to non-members for a fee; other material is restricted to membership.
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Benn's Media
Published by CMP Information, a division of United Business Media
Covering periodicals and other media, this annual directory
is published in four volumes: UK; Europe (excluding UK); North America;
and World (meaning the rest of the world). Listings include consumer,
business and professional periodicals, both newspapers and magazines.
Trade organizations are included as well. Entries include contact information,
circulation, rates, and descriptions of both content and readership.
The taxonomy varies, but categories include country, media type and
subject. UK publishing houses are covered in great detail, with lists
of their titles.
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This international auditing organization has a membership
representing about 2,500 print publications in more than 20 countries.
It validates the reports of many types conducted by its member organizations.
It has a range of consumer and business products that address subscriber
profiles, pass-along readership, audience duplication, and the other
market research issues. The Web site has a buyer's guide for industry
services.
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Certified Audit
of Circulations
This membership organization offers auditing services
to the U.S., Puerto Rico and Mexico. The organization audits over 900
publications, including approximately 15% of all U.S. newspapers, as
well as magazines and other publications. It offers its members audited
circulation reports and other material on marketing issues such as readership
and distribution, as well as customized research.
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This monthly magazine concerns paid or controlled circulation,
and its content covers company financials as well as industry and marketing
issues. There's a weekly e-newsletter associated with the magazine.
It also offers an annual buyers guide to suppliers, in print, and a
sourcebook of suppliers is available on the Web site. The back issues,
some quite recent, can be accessed for free on the Web site, and the
site's articles, also free, are updated frequently.
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Directories in Print
published by Thomson Gale
This guide provides thorough descriptions of directories
worldwide, categorized into 26 areas. Entries cover content, arrangement,
frequency and the other vital facts, sometimes including circulation.
Its subject index lists the publications by 4,700 structured headings,
and there's a large index of titles and keywords.
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Editor & Publisher is the trade journal for the newspaper industry, published monthly in print and updated frequently on the Web. The Web site also offers free email newsletters. Editor & Publisher International Year Book has information on U.S. and Canadian daily and weekly newspapers; it is available in print or online. Its publication data includes circulation, advertising rates, mechanical specifications and the other vitals. The annual Market Guide is a data source for U.S. and Canadian markets. It also covers manufacturers of printing equipment. Some 2002 data is available without subscription.
The E&P Market Guide covers U.S. and Canadian newspaper
markets, with demographics and rankings. The E&P Directory of Syndicated
Services covers syndicates and syndicated services, with listings of
features and writers.
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This monthly magazine serves the magazine industry. It
has wide coverage, from circulation and marketing through strategy and
technology to deals and launches. Content on the Web site is free to
anyone, including the magazine's archives; issues as recent as a few
weeks prior are available, searchable by topic. Its regular columns
include a couple on small magazines, and B-to-B Folio: First Day is
a semi-weekly email newsletter. The Folio Sourcebook, on the site, is
a searchable directory of suppliers.
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Gale Directory of Publications
and Broadcast Media
published by Thomson Gale
The Gale Directory of Publications and Broadcast Media
is a huge international directory, in five print volumes, and in CD-ROM
format. Excluding only newsletters and directories, it lists periodicals
(along with broadcasters) by American state or region, by Canadian province
or region, and by country otherwise. Regional indexes for the U.S. and
Canada list journals in order of circulation. There are also specialized
indexes with publications by type, and others listing them by subject
- with nearly a thousand subject headings. In its entries, users can
find details of content, format, frequency, circulation, rates, etc.
The cross-referenced index of the 11,000 North American publishers lists
their respective publications. In all, it is a thorough global survey.
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International Federation
of Audit Bureaux of Circulations
This international organization supports the growth of
audited circulation and other media data through audit bureaus. Its
membership includes not-for-profit auditing bureaus. Together, they
audit circulation and readership for more than 18,000 periodicals in
about 50 countries. Associate memberships include organizations in related
industries. The site has a member directory and a list of the world's
top publications, with circulation figures. The International Publication
Search database, unfortunately, remains unpopulated.
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The International Federation
of the Periodical Press
The International Federation of the Periodical Press serves
the magazine industry internationally. Its membership is comprised of
trade associations, large publishers, and suppliers. Aside from news,
this site offers data on international trends, including national adspend.
Much of the research is free, and the spread of topics is wide, including
regional and national reports, and sections on international trends
and B-to-B. There's a quarterly print newsletter and a bi-monthly email
newsletter. Its annual, World Magazine Trends (published with ZenithOptimedia),
offers market summaries by country, with size, forecasts, and other
data. Some data from previous editions is free on the site.
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International Newspaper
Marketing Association
This membership organization supports the marketing of
newspapers worldwide. Members have access to information on benchmarking,
newspaper prices, circulation, and company profitability, as well as
a marketing image archive. It offers non-members academic papers, speeches
by industry leaders, and publications, free or priced, on the range
of management and marketing issues in the industry. There are daily
headlines on the site, and it offers several free newsletters, including
one in Spanish.
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This is the international agency that coordinates the
77 ISSN National Centres. Here users will find the list of the National
Centres that assign International Standard Serial Numbers. The Web site
explains the ISSN system and its "human readable equivalent,"
the key title. Users can purchase access to the ISSN register, an enormous
source of international data on serials. The ISSN statistics page is
accessible to anyone; it holds valuable quantitative country-by-country
data on serials.
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Magazine Publishers
of America
This is a comprehensive Web site offers a wide range of important information regarding consumer magazines. Data ranges from market profiles to circulation trends, including data on the various aspects of advertising such as effectiveness, revenue trends, readership by type of unit, etc. There are useful editorial guidelines here, as well as glossaries. MPA publishes, for free on the site, The Magazine Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for Advertisers, Advertising Agencies, and Consumer Marketers 2005-2006, which is a comprehensive set of metrics on every aspect of the industry. The Web site reports on the organization's programs for professionals, as well as its government contact activities.
There are many research reports on the site. Access to
many of them is restricted to members, although in many cases non-members
can access the "topline results" which are valuable themselves.
The MPA includes the Publishers Information Bureau, which tracks advertising,
and its reports are available to all.
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Magazine
Dimensions
published by Media Dynamics
This annual covers the consumer magazine industry and
its effectiveness as an advertising medium. It discusses the industry
on several planes: financial aspects such as income and profitability;
audience issues like circulation and readership; CPM and advertising
impact; and "qualitative factors" such as intensity of exposure
and readers' mindset. It also offers intermedia comparisons, and it
is supplemented by Media Matters, a bi-weekly newsletter that free to
anyone, with archives online.
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MediaFinder
Published by Oxford Communications
This suite of databases includes four directories of U.S.
and Canadian publications. The Oxbridge Directory of Newsletters covers
thousands of consumer, association and business newsletters. The National
Directory of Catalogs includes over 9,000 catalogs in 226 categories.
The Standard Periodical Directory has information on 62,000 periodicals
of all types, including magazines, newspapers, and student publications.
The National Directory of Magazines offers details on nearly 16,000
consumer and business magazines. The CD-ROM has all four, but they can
also be purchased individually in print. On the Web site, there's a
free listing of titles by category.
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This program of the Library of Congress is the U.S. agency
in the international ISSN network; it assigns International Standard
Serial Numbers to serials published in the United States. Material on
the site clarifies the use of ISSN for print and non-print publications.
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Newsletters in Print
published by Thomson Gale
This directory lists thousands of U.S. and Canadian newsletters,
of general or controlled circulation. Its entries are grouped into subject
chapters under seven broad categories. They include bibliographic data,
as well as information regarding the target audience, editorial policies,
etc. Its indexes include title, keyword, subject, and publisher.
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The Newspaper Association
of America
The Web site of the newspaper trade organization has several areas of pithy information. It offers the range of industry statistics: readership stats by demographic category; reader profiles; ad volume by media; detailed categorized adspend; and more. Research reports segment the newspaper audience meticulously, first by demographics, but also by consumption characteristics. Consumption categories cover automotives, financial, computers, entertainment and pharmaceuticals.
There's a newsletter for postal affairs on the site, and
many discussions of industry topics, including events, government affairs,
technology, executive contacts, etc. The annual publication Facts About
Newspapers has a comprehensive compendium of statistics on every aspect
of the newspaper industry from employment, through readership, to recycling.
Newspapers can find suppliers on the site as well. With its data and
discussions, the site is thoroughly inclusive and detailed, and free.
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This is the Web site of SRDS; it is the place to find figures on circulation and advertising rates in the International Media Guide or Advertising Source publications. It is easy to use, and a good way to find lists of journals. The coverage is global. Users can search for periodicals by title, geography, media representative, or "multiple-publisher" (a publisher of multiple titles), and also by "class," which term refers to a long index of subjects. Searches can be limited by global region, and the results are categorized by geography.
There is an individual record for each edition of a journal.
Aside from circulation and rates, the report has fields for readership,
personnel, frequency, etc. The data is often not always complete; the
rate card may be missing, for example. Nonetheless, this is a useful
site for identifying periodicals. Researchers can access the material
by subscription.
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Ulrich's Periodicals
Directory
published by R.R. Bowker
Available by subscription, this database includes magazines,
newspapers, annuals, and other types of periodicals from around the
globe. It can be searched by keyword, subject, title, or ISSN. It can
also be browsed by title or subject. There are a quarter of a million
periodicals listed. Entries cover the expected publication and publisher
data; additional benefits include rates, tables of contents, article
abstracts, journal full-text, and document delivery and links to related
serials, etc.
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World Association
of Newspapers
The membership of this international trade organization consists of national and regional press associations, news agencies, and executives, representing 18,000 newspapers. Its sundry offerings include conferences, an editors Weblog, a newsletter and other publications exploring best practices. World Press Trends, the organization's annual, contains inclusive data on the industry - readership, ad revenue, demographics, etc. Its coverage is global, and it offers an overview of the industry, and data by country and market as well. Core data is available for purchase, but there is some free material on the site.