ABC Consumer January – June 2014: Overview
The latest ABC release for the July to December 2013 period charts all the trends for the print magazine market. Here is Newsline’s overview – with links to full articles for each market.
For the first time Newsline is reporting on combined print and digital (gross) figures for all magazine brands, as this is now ABC’s “headline figure”.
Although the separate figures for print and digital are revealed in the charts below, all copy will only reference combined data. As a result, please note that there is no comparable year-on-year data.
By Sector
Free magazines John Lewis Edition, ASOS.com and Stylist maintained the top three spots in the Women’s Lifestyle market for the January – June 2014 Consumer ABC results – all recording average monthly gross circulation of over 436,000. Up 5.9%, ASOS.com saw the greatest growth of all the titles over the period.
Despite being down -1.9% period on period (PoP), Good Housekeeping maintained the fourth spot, followed by Conde Nast’s Glamour with an average gross circulation of just over 405,000.
There were some moderate gross circulation declines across the sector, with Marie Claire down -11.2% PoP, Look down -10% PoP, Elle down -9.8%, and WM The Woman’s Magazine down -18.2% PoP.
In the Men’s Lifestyle sector, free titles ShortList and Sport once again easily secured the top two spots, with ShortList’s gross circulation up a healthy 15% period on period (PoP) to surpass 535,500.
The second greatest increase in gross circulation belonged to Square Mile, up 8% PoP, while Men’s Fitness was down -11.2% PoP and lads’ mag FHM down -10.3% PoP.
There was little good news to be made of the Women’s Weekly magazine market with just IPC Media’s Woman up 1.1% PoP to secure an average gross monthly circulation just shy of 255,000.
While Take A Break, new! and Closer maintained the top three spots, all titles were down over the period, with Northern & Shell’s new! taking a -13.4% PoP hit. Despite a -5.6% PoP decline, Take A Break still recorded a healthy average monthly gross circulation of just over 657,000.
There were mixed fortunes for titles in the Home Interest sector; however, the majority of changes in gross circulation were slight.
With WI not reporting figures this period, IPC Media’s Ideal Home took the top spot with an average monthly gross circulation of almost 197,000, up 1.8% period on period (PoP).
Hearst Magazine UK’s Country Living managed to take second place with an average monthly gross circulation of 179,000, despite being down -5.8% over the period.
IPC Media’s Style at Home recorded the biggest increase in gross circulation between January and June, up 9.9% to secure a total of 107,600; however a number of the publisher’s other Home Interest titles recorded declines.
In the TV Listings sector, no titles recorded an increase in gross monthly circulation.
The greatest decreases in average monthly gross circulation belonged to Hearst Magazine’s All About Soap, down -12.2% PoP, and IPC Media’s TV Times and Soaplife, down 10.4% PoP and -9.4% PoP, respectively.
There was good news for the News and Current Affairs sector, with the majority of titles recording increases in gross monthly circulation.
The only title to record a decline was Pressdram Ltd’s Private Eye, down -2.6%; however the magazine still came out on top of the Domestic market with almost 218,300.
In Business & Finance, while three of the four Economist titles led the ranks once again, with the Europe, UK and Asia Pacific editions up 1.1% PoP, 1.2%, PoP and 0.8% PoP, respectively, it was the Investors Chronicle that recorded the greatest increase in gross monthly circulation, up 7.5% PoP.
ABC Top 100 Magazines – Total Average Net Circulation/Distribution
The following figures are based on print circulation only.
After taking second place last period, Asda Magazine claimed the top spot for the January to June 2014 period, up 0.2% PoP and 1.7% YoY to secure an average monthly circulation just short of 1.99 million copies.
Despite recording marginal period and yearly declines in monthly circulation, Tesco Magazine took second place with just over 1.93 million copies. After recording a 2.8% increase in circulation over the period and 6% over the year, Morrisons Magazine managed to push TV Choice to fourth place and claim the third spot with just over 1.37 million copies.
A huge 65% YoY increase in average monthly circulation secured Waitrose Kitchen just short of 681,000 copies, while a modest 6.5% YoY increase took ASOS.com to a little over 476,000.
Not such good news for Reader’s Digest and FHM, however, which recorded the greatest yearly losses – down -37.7% YoY and -21.8% YoY, respectively.
ABC Top 100 Actively Purchased Magazines (UK&RoI)
TV Listings magazines have maintained the leading spots for the ABC top 100 actively purchased magazines.
TV Choice remains in first position, followed by What’s on TV and the Radio Times.
Take A Break, Slimming World Magazine and Saga Magazine made the fourth, fifth and sixth places.