Do you love driving all-terrain vehicles through muddy outdoor obstacle courses? There may not be an app for that, but there is a magazine! If you’re more of a croquet person, a publication specifically for you exists, too. In fact, there’s a magazine for just about any niche you can imagine.
Here are just a few examples of specialized publications that have found followings:
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- Mud & Obstacle — For the aforementioned person who loves mud, obstacles, and ATVs, this magazine, which has been around since 2014, helps unite readers interested in these somewhat obscure activities.
- The Croquet Gazette — Grab your mallets! This bimonthly helps members of the Croquet Association keep up with trends and fellow members. It may even have crossover readership from Badminton Monthly. From wickets to shuttlecocks, these specialized magazines deliver precisely what their readers want.
- Catster — This lifestyle magazine is for trendy cat owners and their cohabiting felines. With articles such as “Eco-Friendly Kitty: How to Reduce Your Cat’s Carbon Pawprint” and “5 Totally Legal and Safe Ways to Get Your Cat Stoned,” you can get the drift of this bimonthly.
- Fancy Fowl — Not a niche gourmet cooking magazine, this flashy publication is for fanciers of all things feathered. It provides content of interest for everyone from owners of backyard chicken coops to large-scale turkey farms.
- Emu Today & Tomorrow — This print and digital publication is for fowl fanciers of a higher level — about 3 feet higher. It contains everything every good emu farmer needs to know.
- HOIST — Labeled as an indispensable resource for factory crane professionals, this monthly international magazine covers news, challenges, and breakthroughs in the lifting industry.
- Twins — This magazine has been bringing information of use to families with twins and multiples since 1984. It provides details about the joys and challenges of living as or with multiples.
- Fire Engineering — Being based out of the small town of Fair Lawn, New Jersey, hasn’t stopped Fire Engineering from being one of the most influential publications for firefighters and one of the oldest trade magazines in the U.S.
If you’re interested in any of these niches, you likely know some of these magazines; if you’re not, you’ve probably never heard of them. What are their publishers thinking? It’s just the nature of niche! Speaking of niche publishing, there’s an organization for publishers of all types of niche magazines: Niche Media. Wildly popular among niche publishers, the organization hosts events, publishes blog posts, and serves as a deep resource for all things niche publishing, including networking and learning experiences for niche publishers around the world.
We live in a diverse world full of unique individuals with various interests, lifestyles, and hobbies. Whatever your passion, you are likely not alone. That is the foundation of and reason why so many niche publications succeed. Often, publishers and readers’ passions for particular topics are what keep such publications afloat, but the advent of digital has reduced or eliminated many superniche publishing challenges, allowing these specialized magazines to sustain profitability. Circulation may not be large, but audiences are passionate about and willing to pay for content they deem highly relevant, and advertisers want to reach them, too. That’s a recipe for publishing success — and not just for cooking titles.