Is the print mag publishing market finding it's bottom...or optimum level of sustainability? Seems it might be as there were fewer closures this year than last. There were also fewer start-ups than last year, but there were start-ups!

Matthew Flamm has some insightful figures for us un-initiated that are quite revealing in this report for Cain's New York Business:

Magazines say fewer hellos, goodbyes in 2010

A year that saw innovations like iPad-only magazines both launched and shuttered fewer print titles than in years past.

The magazine world both started and shuttered fewer titles in 2010 than in 2009.

Launches of new titles dropped to 193 from 324 last year, according to the latest survey from MediaFinder.com, the online directory of U.S. and Canadian publications. Magazine closures also took a breather after the great shakeout of 2009—falling to just 176 closed titles, compared with 596 last year.

The category of conversions to an online-only format also shrunk, with just 28 magazines going digital in 2010, compared to 81 in 2009.

It was also a year of innovation. Mediafinder launched a new subcategory among magazine launches, with the birth of the iPad-only format. There were five this year, including Project, from Virgin Airlines; The Digital Handbook, from Hearst Magazines; and Roadtrip from Bonnier Corp.

“There are all kinds of different ideas in terms of format and distribution methods,” said Trish Hagood, president of Oxbridge Communications, publisher of MediaFinder. She cited Nashville, Tenn.-based sports media company Athlon Sports, which launched an eponymous monthly as a newspaper supplement in October, with circulation of 7 million copies.

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