Mr. Magazine on 2012

Samir Husni, a professor at the University of Mississippi who also runs the Mr.Magazine blog, recently posted his review of the magazine industry in 2012.
  2012 was a good year for magazine starts, with 870 new titles coming out.  Of those, 242 of were successful enough to maintain a regular publishing schedule.  Highly specialized niche titles dominated the list, running the gamut from Scrap Quilts to Biker Parties to English Tea & Cakes to Zombie Nation (and that's only in November & December).

The categories reflect the specificity that publishing today demands; from art to women’s interests, being a niche market was the bulls-eye to aim for. Success fairly oozed from the pointed hit almost each and every time. While the epicurean delights still ruled book-a-zine-land and special interests overall, lifestyles came in at a close second.

The range of eclectic niche titles is also reflected in Husni's list of top launches for 2012.

1. Recoil, "an artfully-done, gun-lifestyle magazine that is selling for as much as $125 an issue on e-bay." (The mag generated a small firestorm when some journalists displayed their ignorance and bias by claiming its readers were extremists and the magazine little more than "assault weapon porn")
2. Highlights Hello, a spin-off from the successful Highlights children's magazine.  Highlights Hello is aimed at children aged 0-2, and is highly graphic and filled with things that very young kids can grasp and play with.  Highlights Hello won the Magazine Innovation Center's inaugural award for Excellence.  (But can you really call it's target audience "readers"?).
3. Dujour, a lifestyle magazine for the 1% (net worth over $5 million).
4. Howler, for the soccer crowd.  "(A) completely independent project that promoted itself through social media and word-of-mouth and was publicly and crowd-funded."  A success story for entrepreneurship and social media. 
5. Cosmopolitan for Latinas, another spin-off that "shows how important diversity and fragmentation are in our country today."

Sources -  Recoil: Read This List of 2012's Top Magazine Launches, And You Probably Will, MediaDailyNews
"Recoil" and "Highlights Hello" Top My List of Most Notable Launches of 2012; New Magazines Wrap-Up; Mr. Magazine Style,  Mr.Magazine blog
2012 Top Launches video