I am no knitting expert but Knitty seems like a great magazine for knitters. It’s free, published quarterly and only online. That’s right – no print edition. In fact, there are at least ten other knitting magazines which publish online editions – some free, some online only. Knitty seems to be the market leader from what I can tell – probably because it is by knitters for knitters and feels less advertiser driven.
Newsagents have taken comfort in recent years that the titles we carry in our stores which no one else will touch – such as knitting titles – will continue to drive traffic for us. We hold these special interest titles up as our point of difference. There was a time that being the magazine specialists mattered. Now Google is the magazine specialist and it provides access free of charge from the comfort of your own home.
Knitty demonstrates the risk to our businesses if we rely on these special interest titles to guarantee foot traffic. As more special interest areas are well covered online customer traffic to our stores will fall. Hence our need to focus on building our own success while we carefully monitor and manage the resources we invest in special interest titles.