The Nation Magazine is monthly
The Nation, the progressive magazine that has been published since 1865, will be published monthly instead of every other week from January.
As part of the change, the magazine will now have a “bigger, richer” 84 pages, up from the current 48 pages, said Bhaskar Sunkara, The Nation’s president.
DD Guttenplan, editor of The Nation, and Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor-in-chief, said the publication would continue to focus on comprehensive analysis and news from the political left. Ms vanden Heuvel said staff were rethinking the role the print magazine plays alongside the brand’s other products, including its website, podcasts, events and a possible book imprint – and that the print coverage had a long shelf life.
“People put magazines aside and circle what they want to read,” says Ms. Vanden Heuvel.
Nearly all print publications are facing strong headwinds, including declining circulation and lower advertising revenue, as most readers turn to online products. Mr. Guttenplan said The Nation was in a slightly different situation because most subscribers get the print edition and print advertising is not a major source of revenue.
“Unlike almost all of our competitors, The Nation has never made much money from advertising,” Mr. Guttenplan said. “We need to pay attention to our readers and our donors” – people who contribute more than the subscription price.
Subscribers have expressed a desire for “more of what we do in print at once, and less often,” he explained, “because then we can go deeper, we can give them more background, we can give them more context, we can do more research.”
Mr Sunkara said: “For us it was never a question whether it would be printed or not.”
Subscriptions grew 3.8 percent this year, Mr. Sunkara said, ultimately reaching nearly 91,000. About 80 percent of subscriptions are for print. Including newsstand copies, Mr. Sunkara said, the total circulation is 92,000 to 94,000. End of 2021, the total circulation was 96,000. Yet there has been a sharp decline over the past twenty years. In 2006 the circulation was 187,000.
“A reduction can be seen as a stepping stone to a digital-only future,” Mr Sunkara said, but “this is a way to give people a better print product, rather than moving away from print.”