Consumer ABCs: Home Interest

Publisher Hearst was a shining star in an otherwise poorly performing market, with three of its titles managing to record both period-on-period and year-on-year increases in circulation between July and December 2016.

Up 6.1% PoP, Elle Decoration boosted its circulation more than any other title in the second half of the year. It was also up 10.1% YoY to finish 2016 with a print and digital circulation of almost 73,800.

Country Living, the second most popular magazine in the market, was also up 4.5% PoP and 12.5% YoY to reach 188,900, while House Beautiful was up 2.3% PoP and 8.6% YoY.

Not such good news for Time Inc’s portfolio, however, with a number of its titles posting significant circulation losses.

Style at Home managed to record both the largest period and yearly declines, down -15.8% and -19.5%, respectively, while Ideal Homes Complete Guide to Xmas was down by -17.1% on the previous year.

However, despite an -11.6% period decline (-7.7% YoY), the publisher’s flagship home interest mag, Ideal Home, is still the third most popular in the market with a circulation of 158,500.

WI Life leads the market with a circulation of almost 221,600.

Correction: The first iteration of this story, which was live for about an hour, had errors picked up from an incomplete dataset. The article has been re-written and the charts updated with the correct data. We apologise to anyone inconvenienced.