ABC Consumer Jul-Dec 2012: Agency Views

I don’t think there are any surprises with the latest ABC figures. Every 6 months we are going to see print circulations decrease further and further for the majority of titles. As media continues to evolve and platforms proliferate and develop we will consistently see audiences migrate to other touch points.

Looking at the latest print ABC’s, all sectors have suffered decreases with the exception of the youth market which is up 9.1% YoY, demonstrating that there is still an appetite for brand extensions of kids TV shows.

The celebrity market posted the biggest decrease as a sector with many readers finding their fix from the digital sites and social media (More and Heat now have more social media followers than print consumers). Furthermore, although Reveal suffered a -24% YoY decrease in circulation, its website attracted more than a million visitors in the last 7 months and 400,000 unique users in January, illustrating the strong hook of the brand itself.

Free is still a buoyant market and within the last 6 months we have seen Time Out go from a struggling weekly paid-for title with a circulation of 52,198, to ranking at number 37 in the top consumer magazines with a circulation increase of 455%!

The current ABC results will publish print figures and digital editions separately. The ABC do not combine figures and the digital editions relate only to the digital replicas, whereby the magazine is replicated up to 95% of its print counterpart and read exactly like a magazine, on a digital platform such as a desktop or tablet device.

The PPA has released the same ABC numbers today, but as a combined figure and are calling it the PPA Combined Circulation Chart. This is much more positive in terms of giving more information about the reach, however it still falls short of accounting for the fully interactive editions which are arguably the apps that are innovating the market and attracting new readers.

As print brands move further into the digital world and increase the number of brand extensions the printed circulation figure will become less significant. What is more interesting is the overall brand reach and how consumers are engaging with the brands on different platforms.

With the multitude of magazine touch points available advertisers can now benefit from multi-channel consumer engagement. Digital platforms also offer accountability, something we haven’t been able to execute fully in print. They offer rich media and bespoke formats and interactive content which are exciting and engaging and have direct connection to transactional services.

What we have seen in print this period is continual innovation and experimentation. AR and QR are now readily used in print making it come to life and increasingly accountable. Click-to-buy apps are becoming more prevalent in the fashion mags after the success of Cosmo’s Genie app and then last May Reveal launched its ‘See It Buy It app’.

Hearst have also, shrewdly, partnered with The Hut Group to develop a new e-commerce initiative of developing commercial websites for their magazine brands.

This period we also saw Marie Claire run the first video in print with the launch of a Dolce & Gabbana fragrance. Marie Claire were also first to use NFC technology in their magazine giving readers access to additional content, when they point their smartphones at the ad.

Although this period has seen further decreases in the printed product the number of digital replica editions have increased by 88% PoP. Interactive apps have rapidly grown and there has been more innovation than we have ever seen in print. There is a huge amount of choice for consumers, now more than ever before.

Readers are becoming ‘smart aggregators’ and choose what content they want to read and what format they want to read it on. Consumers are filtering content to become their own editors. Over the next year we will see more closures in the print market and a trend of magazines becoming available only in the digital format.

Brands that prosper will be the ones that are strong and innovate and keep the focus on trust, investment and first choice for consumers.

At first glance this isn’t a particularly bright picture for magazines as they struggle to weather the storm of the continually dismal economic climate, but look more closely and there are some good stories to tell.

Magazines are more than just the sum of their printed parts these days. Multiple touchpoints are being utilised as ways for the consumer to interact with the brands.

Women’s magazines across the board, from lifestyle monthlies to women’s weeklies are facing print circulation decline. In these tough economic times people are still cutting back on multiple purchases and remaining loyal to one or two beloved titles.

One title that has bucked the trend of print decline is Easy Living. With its fresh looking makeover, reduced cover price and the editorial move tapping into the popularity of the ‘Fifty Shades’ the magazine is still 8.65% ahead of its circulation posted this time last year.

The challenges publishers are facing are being met head on with their forays into the digital world. The younger women’s fashion titles for example are introducing more and more innovative touchpoints for consumers to access their content – mobile, tablet and online are all ways the brands can be engaged with. Cosmo’s shopping genie, Company’s weekly edit and Look’s UGC ‘Look what I’m wearing’ franchise, amongst others, are all great examples of how brands are encouraging consumers to interact.

Within the news and current affairs world it,s perhaps no surprise that it’s the financial and investment brands that are taking the biggest hits to circulation – Money Week, Shares and the Investors Chronicle are down significantly. The rest of the sector has seen fairly flat performance and in the case of The Week they have posted a healthy YoY increase of 3%.

The homes market is an interesting one – many titles have reported flat or declining circulation but IPC’s affordable chic homes title Style at Home continues to see huge growth. This seems to be a reflection of the economic climate – times are tough but people still want their home to be a nice place to spend time. At the opposite end of the spectrum Elle Deco has reported a healthy increase of 5%.

This market seems to have benefited from the impact of digital editions as House and Garden, Homes and Gardens and House Beautiful, amongst others, have all shown healthy digital increases.

The upmarket men’s sector continues to hold stable with both print and digital editions for Esquire and GQ reporting good figures. Men’s Health have seen a decline in their printed product but the digital edition seems to be continuing in strength.

TV listings have seen fairly significant decreases across the board which makes the rumoured decision by Northern and Shell to launch a new title into the market an interesting one.

With the influx of new tablets into the market at Christmas it will be interesting to see the impact it has on the next round of ABC figures, both print and digital as publishers actively embrace the continually changing market place.

This period’s ABC Consumer magazine release signals an encouraging leap forward on the reporting of the breadth of ‘Print Brands’. An unprecedented number of digital editions have reported on this current release having doubled compared to the previous period.

The ABC is to be applauded for putting in the really hard yards in the past year to make provision for standardised set of cross sector metrics, recognised across the whole industry. This will hopefully ensure a much-needed common approach is embraced now and in the future. This is a very welcome development which heralds a new level of transparency to the digital editions and the breadth of print brands.

The longest recessionary period in living memory has clearly impacted the magazine purchasing habits of the consumer. This is laid bare by lower frequency of purchase and a decline in selecting a secondary title at news-stands.

Subscriptions, therefore, are all the more crucial to offer the reader even more bang for their buck across a number of different platforms. For print brands to truly succeed, the proliferation of affordable tablets as witnessed last autumn – Kindle Fire HD, Google Nexus and the like – will be pivotal to the exponential growth of print brands that all publishers crave.

The total circulation of digital editions has rocketed year on year, up over 260%. But this is only half the story. The full impact of the rise in tablet sales over Christmas and the effect it will have on print brands as a whole will, we hope, manifest itself positively in the next consumer release due this summer.

Whilst it has been another challenging period for many, with few green shoots, publishers are continuing to adapt and innovate more than ever to ensure their brands not only survive, but succeed in an ever increasingly connected world.

Getting under the skin of what the reader wants is essential with high quality and accessible content at the epicentre of their print brand offerings, regardless of the platform readers choose to consume.

The July – Dec 2012 ABC’s are not a positive set at first glance, with the total magazine market down. However, as we have seen over the last few ABC periods, whilst the print edition is in decline there is still an appetite for print brands.

The digital editions continue to post really positive growth, in some instances doubling their figures, granted the numbers are relatively small but this is growing daily.

The weekly and in particular gossip / celebrity titles, have seen the most decline as the younger end of this readership seem to be getting their celebrity and entertainment fix elsewhere. Therefore publishers need to ensure that they are making their brand relevant and available on every platform their audience would want to consume their content.

Digital, mobile and tablets are all crucial to this market especially as smart phone and tablet penetration grows.

The older men’s lifestyle titles have done reasonably well with Shortlist and Sport being relatively static, whilst GQ and Esquire both posted increases PoP. GQ and Esquire’s digital editions continue to grow well posting 106% and 59% increases respectively

Elle Decoration and Style at Home are the clear winners in the Home Interest market which in itself is fairly stable with 5% and 22% increases YoY. Elle Deco in particular will be celebrating as they also grew their digital editions by 523% making it currently the largest Home interest title.

In summary, yes the headline ABC figures do not on the surface look very rosy. However audiences still have an appetite for print brands but they want to consume them differently.

Publishers need to ensure that they are adapting and moving quickly to stay on top of these changes in consumption, to ensure that they do not lose their audiences completely.

We will no doubt next ABC see further growth in the digital editions and with recent tablet launches in the weeklies market I’m sure we can expect to see growth in this area.

There’s no denying that the top-line figures don’t make pleasant reading and it can’t be ignored that a number of publications continue to struggle in this ABC period.

Apart from the Men’s Lifestyle sector – which was buoyed by the debutante MODE – all of the major sectors have posted declines both YoY and PoP. Whilst there are exceptions, the younger end of the Women’s Lifestyle market and weekly market have been particularly hard hit. This said, in the age of digital print the big statistic to take notice of is the 87% period on period growth of digital editions.

As content continues to move beyond print and across multiple platforms it is digital editions that will continue to make up a greater proportion of circulations moving into 2013.

Looking at Hearst as a whole, they are down -11% across their print editions but they are delivering strong digital numbers across their headline brands such as Cosmopolitan and Elle. In addition, GQ‘s digital editions now make up nearly 10% of its circulation which is up from the last period.

The latest digital edition figures do not take into account the huge growth in tablet penetration across the UK over Christmas. Tablet penetration is set to reach 30% in the coming months which will continue to fuel the growth of digital editions of magazines.

The growth of digital editions is a positive story and calls for developments in tracking so advertisers can fully assess the performance of campaigns. Agencies will continue with caution until digital print becomes as accountable as other digital platforms.

Finally, Time Out’s entry is a really positive story. Their brave decision to go free has paid off, resulting in strong growth across all of their platforms. This is an example of how strong content across multiple platforms will deliver strong brand reach which are the figures we should all be looking at.

The digital editions really are the key story this time around, with an increase of 329%, with tablet editions in particular increasing at an exponential rate, with brands such as Grazia entering the market.

The traditional women’s weeklies, although in decline, have been much more resilient than their younger counterparts. Take A Break clearly rules the roost in this sector and continues to circulate almost three quarters of a million copies, even with a YoY decline of 5%

The digital trend continues in in this sector with brands reaching huge numbers through the likes of online, mobile and social as well as print. As an example Now! magazine boast over 35,000 followers on Twitter, and these numbers – although not necessarily included in the headline circulation figures – are only set to increase.

E-commerce click-to-buy – and the increase of Augmented Reality – is also a key growth area, and a great way for titles to not only make money, but also to offer their readers something extra.

In these times of austerity, weeklies are always the hardest hit. As readers start to watch the pennies, weeklies move from being a fickle purchase to a more considered one. There are always things to buck this trend and celebrity marriages and births do wonders for circulations- the birth of a certain royal baby will give this sector a much needed boost in the early summer.

The Men’s market presented more of a mixed bag. Traditional ‘lad’s mag’ titles FHM, Nuts and Zoo continued the downward trend from previous ABCs, showing that perhaps this style of magazine has had its day.

More tailored magazines such as Men’s Fitness, Wired, Focus and GQ have fared much better and all posted YoY increases. Esquire led this upturn with +9% in print editions, alongside an increase of nearly 60% in digital editions.

As expected print continues to gather pace down the digital route and as tablets and smartphones become more and more accessible, this is a trend that is only set to continue.

It’s another set of bad results for publishers in the latest ABCs. Almost every major sector is down, with many of the biggest titles suffering heavy losses. Powerhouse brands like Cosmo, Top Gear, Hello and Closer suffered double-digit drops YoY, with little evidence anywhere that market-wide declines will abate.

So are there any signs of good news? Perhaps, but they are few and far between. Digital editions continue to grow, but at a painfully slow rate (and despite some titles – surprisingly – slipping back PoP); publishers will be hoping that Christmas 2012 aka ‘Tablet Christmas’ – will accelerate growth in the next period.

Data from the NRS suggests that total magazine readership is not falling as fast as sales – hinting that economic (and not purely structural) factors are still a major cause of sales declines. And the recent launch of NRS PADD is an important step in helping publishers sell themselves to agencies as genuine cross-platform audiences, rather than just magazine brands.

But these are medium to long term developments, and in the present, it’s very hard to put a positive spin on these results.