Consumer ABCs: Women’s Weeklies
The latest Consumer ABC results for the July – December period show that women’s weekly magazines are continuing to feel the strain, with all print and digital circulations down year-on-year and just four up compared with the first half of the year.
After a poor start to the year, with circulation down by more than a third, OK Magazine posted the best results for the period, up 7.3%.
However, the Northern & Shell-owned title also managed to record the biggest yearly decline at -31.4%.
There were a few morsels of good news, however; while no titles recorded an increase in period circulation in the first half of the year, Love It (+3.4% PoP), Pick Me Up (+1.6%) and My Weekly (+1.46%) were all up in the second half.
Closer’s circulation decreased the most during the second half of the year, down -8.65%; however, with a combined print and digital circulation of 223,300, the title is still the fourth most popular in the market – behind Take A Break (542, 800), Woman’s Weekly (276,200) and Chat (248,300).
Meanwhile, Time Inc’s Woman was down -6.74% PoP, while Bella was down -5.72% PoP and Heat -5.3% PoP.
Heat also recorded one of the steeper yearly declines, down -16.5%, alongside Star (-17.55%), Now (-17.3%) and New (-16.56%).
| Print & Digital (Gross) | Total Print Circulation | Total Digital Circulation | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Title | Publisher | Jul-Dec 16 | % PoP | % YoY | Jul-Dec 16 | % PoP | % YoY | Jul-Dec 16 | % PoP | % YoY |
| Take a Break | H Bauer Publishing | 542,786 | -3.49 | -7.92 | 542,786 | -3.49 | -7.92 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Woman’s Weekly | Time Inc. (UK) Ltd | 276,208 | -2.83 | -5.96 | 276,208 | -2.72 | -5.84 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Chat | Time Inc. (UK) Ltd | 248,288 | -2.45 | -8.28 | 248,288 | -2.17 | -7.99 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Closer | Bauer Consumer Media | 223,342 | -8.65 | -16.15 | 219,817 | -9.10 | -16.65 | 3,525 | 32.12 | 33.32 |
| That’s Life | H Bauer Publishing | 217,358 | -1.27 | -5.80 | 217,358 | -1.27 | -5.80 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Woman | Time Inc. (UK) Ltd | 208,145 | -6.74 | -9.81 | 208,145 | -6.48 | -9.56 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| New! | Northern & Shell Magazines Ltd | 206,071 | -4.98 | -16.56 | 203,457 | -4.58 | -16.25 | 2,614 | -28.48 | -35.10 |
| The People’s Friend | D C Thomson & Co Ltd | 194,301 | -3.85 | -7.94 | 194,301 | -3.85 | -7.94 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| OK! Magazine | Northern & Shell PLC | 189,270 | 7.30 | -31.37 | 184,202 | 7.15 | -31.84 | 5,068 | 13.20 | -7.94 |
| Woman’s Own | Time Inc. (UK) Ltd | 185,172 | -3.22 | -7.78 | 185,172 | -2.92 | -7.49 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Bella | H Bauer Publishing | 165,949 | -5.72 | -9.66 | 165,949 | -5.72 | -9.66 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Real People | Hearst Magazines UK | 140,217 | -0.85 | -10.34 | 139,086 | -1.19 | -10.87 | 1,131 | 70.59 | 228.78 |
| Best | Hearst Magazines UK | 139,635 | -2.25 | -15.36 | 137,903 | -2.83 | -16.26 | 1,732 | 85.24 | 512.01 |
| Heat | Bauer Consumer Media | 136,470 | -5.28 | -16.48 | 133,933 | -5.69 | -16.92 | 2,537 | 22.86 | 16.43 |
| Pick Me Up | Time Inc. (UK) Ltd | 135,623 | 1.60 | -6.96 | 135,623 | 1.87 | -6.69 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Star | Northern & Shell PLC | 122,630 | -2.56 | -17.55 | 121,388 | -2.62 | -17.63 | 1,242 | 3.07 | -9.21 |
| Reveal | Hearst Magazines UK | 111,807 | -1.85 | -9.09 | 109,922 | -2.40 | -10.04 | 1,885 | 47.27 | 136.81 |
| Now | Time Inc. (UK) Ltd | 104,937 | -4.31 | -17.32 | 104,937 | -3.67 | -16.84 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| My Weekly | D C Thomson & Co Ltd | 101,833 | 1.46 | -1.44 | 101,127 | 1.18 | -2.12 | 706 | 70.53 | n/a |
| Love It! | ACH Publishing | 82,733 | 3.38 | -5.51 | 82,733 | 3.38 | -5.51 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| The Lady | The Lady | 26,469 | n/a | -3.69 | 25,566 | n/a | -4.64 | 903 | n/a | 33.78 |
| Total | n/a | 3,759,244 | n/a | n/a | 3,737,901 | n/a | n/a | 21,343 | n/a | n/a |
