It’s easy to see why the public could be skeptical of “green” magazine issues. They’re printed on paper, after all, which comes from dead trees.
Portfolio’s Jeff Bercovici
has provided some data to back up that assumption.
Time’s April 28 green issue sold 72,000 copies, down from an average of 93,000; the May edition of
Elle was bought 275,000 times, a considerable drop from the average of 328,500; and
Discover’s green edition sold more than 30,000 copies (86,000) below average (117,000). Meanwhile,
Vanity Fair’s May issue took only a slight bump, selling 370,000 copies, a decrease from the yearly average by more than 5,000.