What we’re seeing

While last week’s analysis showed that physical book sales were, although declining some, remarkably resilient towards digital adoption, Alkami Research reveals that magazine subscriptions do not share that strength.

In order to easily compare the percent change in number of magazine transactions and the dollars spent on magazine transactions, Alkami Research converted both data points to a scale where 100 represents a baseline of comparison. With this in mind, Alkami Research selected 2019 as the starting point and the chart shows the value for both number of subscriptions and dollars spent on subscriptions is 100. Over the next 4 years, both the number of subscriptions and dollars spent on magazines have declined significantly. In 2023, consumers spent 76 percent less on magazines than they did in 2019. There were 56 percent fewer subscriptions in 2023 than in 2019. The greater reduction in dollars spent is likely an indication that magazine publishers have tried to lower prices in order to combat subscriber loss.   

Takeaway and Call to Action

As media preferences change, financial institutions should be mindful of where they put their marketing dollars. Transaction analysis holds the key to understanding where your account holders are spending their time and with which merchants.