Disappointing Period For Men’s Magazine Market
The figures listed in NewsLine’s ABC reports are those reported by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) as at Thursday 16 August 2001. Late submissions and changes may be made after this date, and will thereafter be amended in MediaTel’s Press database. For full notes on how NewsLine’s reports are compiled please see Important Notes: ABC Jan-Jun 2001.
Growing competition and a fickle readership has made the climate for men’s magazines an increasingly difficult one. The recent closure of IPC’s Later and Emap’s Sky (see Emap To Axe Sky While IPC Says ‘See You’ To Later), have led to growing concern that the men’s magazine market is reaching saturation point, but this hasn’t stopped some of the market’s key players from speculating that new launches are inevitable (see Has The Bubble Burst For Men’s Mags?).
However with the sector seeing an overall drop in circulation of 2.4% any new additions to the market face a tough challenge.
Emap, who recently suspended Project Floyd, rumoured to be a work, career and lifestyle title scheduled for an autumn launch (see Emap Suspends Project Floyd), continued to dominate the sector with a 38% share of the market. Emap’s Arena also saw the most significant increase among men’s titles with circulation climbing 6.4%.
Cabal Communication’s Front and Dennis Publishing’s Men’s Fitness also saw circulation rise. The former was up 6.3%, proving that the booze and boobs formula is still effective, while the latter saw an increase of 0.4% indicating that there is still life in men’s niche markets.
However, the men’s market’s leading title FHM saw circulation slip 2.2% and FHM Collections fared even worse with a drop of 21.9%, the most significant in the sector.
IPC’s Loaded, the father of lad’s mags, was also hit, with circulation slipping 12.7%. The closure of Later, which reported a dwindling circulation of 77,062 for the period January to June 2000 also caused IPC’s share of the market to shrink to 14%.
| Men’s Lifestyle Magazines Circulations | |||||
| Title | Publisher | Jan 00 – Jun 00 | Jan 01 – Jun 01 | Actual Change | % Change |
| Arena | Emap | 47,141 | 50,140 | 2,999 | 6.4 |
| Bizarre (B) | I Feel Good | (pub. John Brown) 117,439 | 112,112 | 5,372 | -4.5 |
| Esquire | National Magazine Company | 70,435 | 62,005 | -8,430 | -12.0 |
| Face | Emap | 65,309 | 60,092 | -5,217 | -8.0 |
| FHM | Emap | 715,756 | 700,172 | -15,584 | -2.2 |
| FHM Collections | Emap | 71,038 | 55,511 | -15,527 | -21.9 |
| Focus (B) | National Magazine Company | (pub. G + J) 61,458 | 56,141 | 5,317 | -8.7 |
| Front | Cabal Communications | 143,043 | 152,041 | 8,998 | 6.3 |
| GQ | Condé Nast | 138,177 | 127,518 | -10,659 | -7.7 |
| Later (C) | IPC Media | 77,062 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Loaded | IPC Media | 350,040 | 305,444 | -44,596 | -12.7 |
| Maxim | Dennis Publishing | 326,214 | 305,070 | -21,144 | -6.5 |
| Men’s Fitness (B) | Dennis Publishing | (pub. Mollin) 46,106 | 46,295 | 189 | 0.4 |
| Men’s Health | Rodale Press | 235,786 | 213,145 | -22,641 | -9.6 |
| Sky (C) | Emap | 61,030 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Total | 2,301,031 | 2,245,686 | -55,345 | -2.4 | |
Notes: FHM Bionic has changed from a bi-annual to a monthly circulation during the period. Emap had not submitted circulation data at the time of the 16 August release. In the Jan-Jun 2000 period circulation was 93,353
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