Member Article

Magazine Distributer Monitors Bitter Sweet Business Trends Due to COVID-19

A North East magazine subscription and distribution firm has reported a fall in sales of business-related titles and a significant rise in those publications aimed at the “stay at home” customer.

MD of Unique Magazines, John Porrett, from Newcastle, has monitored recent orders in view of the COVID-19 crisis where he’s noticed a trend towards magazines aimed at home-based activities. In particular, tv listings, women’s weeklies and comics.

“It would appear that the public are starting to plan ahead for a possible long stay in their homes due to the crisis that is affecting us all at the moment,” said Mr Porrett. “We’ve seen a marked increase in subscriptions of TV listings magazines reflecting the fact that people are doing what they can to make their time at home as bearable as possible.”

The fact that schools are now closed has had a bitter sweet effect on business too. Subscriptions to educational establishments and libraries have dwindled while publications aimed at children have seen an upward turn.

Last month, Unique Magazines launched a comic club for kids after finding that fun, colourful and humorous stories and activities were the perfect antidote to addictive tech for young people and their parents. The Comic Club is aimed at seven to 11-year-olds and is a subscription service which delivers high quality, hand-selected age-appropriate magazines and activity ideas direct to the door every month.

“Now more than ever, parents need as much help as possible to occupy and educate their children while they stay at home. Our team are working hard to supply activities that can be done as a family based on the information in the comics we deliver,” said Mr Porrett.

As an avid reader since a very young age, John established his own distribution business Unique Magazines in 2009, and it now delivers a choice of more than 3,500 magazines to thousands of readers in 160 countries the world over from its base in Gateshead.

For a recurring monthly payment of £9.95, which can be cancelled at any time, they’ll get a monthly delivery of two comics from a range including the likes of Horrible Histories, Eco Kids, Brilliant Brains, Whiz Pop Bang and National Geographic Kids, all of which feature stunning photography and thought-provoking articles. The package will also include an activity sheet with every delivery, which relates to the content of the magazines in that month’s delivery, and a journal. The website is also a mine of fun and information for subscribers, including a Kids Zone which has loads of videos and fascinating articles, and a Parent Zone with useful articles on topics such as healthy eating and keeping active. Parents will particularly find the Ask the Teacher feature a valuable resource to ask questions related to education.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Keith Newman .