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Retail Media Breakfast Club
Why Retailer Magazines Are the Next Big Retail Media Channel (Post-AI Shopping Era)
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Something unexpected is happening with the generation that was raised on screens. Gen Z is scooping up vinyl records and loitering in bookstores, a backlash against the perpetually online generations ahead of them. Other retro attractions include print magazines, newspapers and even direct mail. A study in 2025 by the Harris Poll and Quad foundation found that 72% of Gen Z and Millennials wish that more brands would surprise them through physical mail. 71% of consumers say that print catalogs or magazines feel more authentic than digital campaigns, and 78% of younger consumers say that physical mail has prompted them to visit a store. This generation raised on algorithms is actively seeking out the tactile, the tangible, and and even wanting to resurrect Black Friday doorbuster shopping for an industry hunting for services that AI can't touch, this consumer shift should be a signal. I've spent the past year arguing on this podcast and in my newsletter that AI enabled shopping threatens the on site sponsored product ads that generate 70 to 80% profit margins for retailers, and that physical touchpoints represent some of the most defensible ground left. But while the industry pours capital into digital screens in stores and programmatic audio, it's also overlooking a format that is hidden in plain sight, one that delivers measurable purchase influence and arrives in consumers hands wrapped in exactly the kind of trust that algorithms can't manufacture. I'm talking about retailer magazines, catalogs, print editorial content, the paper stuff this episode is based on a column that I wrote for The Drum on March 19, 2026. First, let's talk about Costco. Costco Connection is the third largest magazine in the US by print circulation. Isn't that a crazy stat? Every month, 15.4 million copies are mailed to executive members, with another 3, 300,000 distributed in warehouses. According to Costco, over 94% of readers report having confidence in the magazine's content. Mark Williamson, who you'll know from this show, who leads retail media at Costco, cited a 2025 readership study that found that 82.7% of Costco connection readers report buying an item that they discovered while reading the magazine. The New York Times recently profiled the magazine and noted that celebrities all the way from Oprah to Tom Hanks have all pursued cover features on Costco Connection, recognizing that there are few more valuable placements for someone with something to sell than a publication that's connected to a store where nearly a third of US Consumers shop. Every word in the magazine is signed off by Costco's chief executive. In other words, this is not a side project. It is one of the mechanisms that cements love for that retailer's brand, which boasts itself member renewal rates above 90%. It's also a retail media asset. Advertisers in Costco Connection must be Costco suppliers. That is a direct line to from editorial content to in store purchase. And Costco isn't alone in producing editorial content. Even Amazon, the company most associated with algorithmic shopping, has leaned into print. It has mailed an annual holiday Kids gift book to prime members since 2018, and in 2022 it said it published its largest ever holiday fashion print lookbook sent to millions of prime members in the US Featuring more than a thousand items. If Costco demonstrates what a single retailer can achieve with print, retailers in other markets show how to formalize the model as a media business. I have a couple of wonderful examples from my home country of Australia. Bunnings is Australia's dominant home improvement retailer, and it launched Hammer Media earlier this year, packaging up its owned media services into a formal retail media network for suppliers. The Bunnings magazine is central to that offering. Roy Morgan Data puts its print readership at 1.74 million, making it Australia's most widely read home and garden magazine. The distribution model is smart free in store pickup ties distribution to foot traffic rather than a paid subscription or mailing it out with digital availability extending the content beyond the store visit. From a retail media standpoint, Bunnings positions its magazine alongside its 14.8 million monthly website visitors, four and a half million email subscribers, and 300 digital screens that are stationed across 150 stores in the country. But the magazine brings something that none of those channels can it can extend dwell time with editorial content in a context that the reader chooses to engage with not only in the shopping moment, but in their leisure time as well. Retailers know that a marketplace model can dramatically boost product assortment, shopper engagement and total revenue. But to get the most out of your marketplace, you need an ad tech solution that can really engage sellers. Miracle Ads is powering the future of retail media for for leading retailers to activate both 3P sellers and 1P brands. Learn more@miracle.com that's M I R A K L.com the second example from Australia is Chemist Warehouse, Australia's largest pharmacy chain, which built an entire content brand called House of Wellness. The play here is even more ambitious. Chemist Warehouse partnered with News Corp's content agency called Suddenly to produce genuine editorial content rather than thinly disguise product promotion. They distributed 51 million copies in 2024 across stores and newspaper inserts, and that content sits within News Corp's lifestyle platform called Body and Soul, giving it a lot of publisher credibility. The brand has also extended to a weekly radio show and in store activations. Now when I posted about this topic on LinkedIn, various retailers in the UK market were consistently called out for having top tier print publications, particularly the department stores John Lewis and Marks and Spencer. One reader says that she loves the Marks and Spencer food magazine precisely because it doesn't feel like a catalog at all. Now what retailers might need to be honest about is whether they can really do lifestyle content well on their own. Chemist Warehouse solved this by hiring people who think like publishers, and it transformed them from a discount pharmacy into a wellness authority. Now I've got to skip forward in my article a little bit because I'm not going to be able to cover everything in a 10 minute podcast, but we'll link up to it in the show Notes I want to talk about this company called Postie, which I don't have any affiliation with, but I found their business model very interesting. They are essentially a programmatic direct mail platform with a very specific focus on retail and retail media. So a few things that they cite as working very well here. Number one is that direct mail response rates have been climbing steadily and research consistently recently shows that they outperform digital channels by a factor of five to nine. John Rees, who is the partnership's Director for Commerce Media Networks at Postie, argues that retailers mailboxes represent dormant monetization inventory that is just sitting there. His point is that if you've got a robust loyalty CRM, you can utilize that audience for brand funded campaigns that are delivered through a channel or with proven cut through. But if print is so effective, why isn't every retailer publishing a magazine? Most likely the obvious answers are cost measurement, organizational capability and focus. And it's true that not every retailer who has experimented with print ended up keeping it at the center of the strategy US DIY retailer lows but built a sizable audience for their Creative Ideas magazine which by 2011 had more than 3 million subscribers. But over time the company has put much more emphasis on digital inspiration content and YouTube based how to media rather than print wrapping up. Here the retailers that are trapped in what I've called the retail media doom loop where mid tier retail networks can't invest in technology without fresh budgets and can't attract fresh budgets without technology. This editorial content offers an alternative path. And for brands that are exhausted by cluttered sponsored search results and opaque algorithmic placements. The appeal for print is obvious. An editorial environment where your product is discovered through trusted content rather than a bidding war. It's also a surface that sits in someone's home for an average of 17 days rather than just flashing past in a click and scroll. The retail media industry is understandably obsessed with what comes next. Agentic commerce, AI powered creative, full funnel automation. Maybe what's really durable is sitting right here on the kitchen counter.