Sober Conversations at Distripress

U.S. distribution trends impact the global market.

By Linda Ruth
12/11/2008 -12:10 PM

I recently got back from this year’s Distripress convention, held in Istanbul the last week in October. At Distripress publishers meet with distributors from all over the world to arrange for distribution and sale of magazines in the local markets.

I’ve been going to Distripress for twenty years, and many of the distributors I meet with are the same ones I first met in Toronto in 1988. On the strength of the warm relationships that are almost inevitably established through so many years of meetings, we feel comfortable enough to speak freely in these meetings.

Speak freely they did. And what I heard was that distributors throughout the world are a bit cranky with us, the United States. Why?

“How is it possible,” several asked me, “that the US economy tanks, taking the rest of the world with it, and within days the dollar is stronger than ever, while our (rand, peso, lira) is floundering against it?”

Wish I could say. It’s clear that (as others said to me), when America sneezes, the rest of the world catches cold. We are as connected in the world of magazine sales, where international companies own the distributors, the publishers, the retailers—both in the US and abroad—as we are in other fields of endeavor. Our trends may lead theirs—as in the case of the retailer/wholesaler consolidation, which began making its ripples felt overseas somewhat after it started here—or mirror theirs—as in the case of our trend of polybagging premiums, which began in the UK and crossed to us.

But, just as to fully understand our economy it is necessary to understand the global trends, the same holds true in the periodical industry. Small world, after all.

Linda Ruth is Principal of Publisher Single Copy Sales Services. Her book of case studies, "How to Market Your Magazine on the Newsstand," is available at BookDojo.com and at Amazon.