ABC Consumer Jan-June 2013: Agency views

It will come as no surprise to anyone that the latest set of ABC results shows print circulation decreases for the majority of titles. We’re all fully versed in the way in which media continues to evolve, platforms develop and more and more audiences migrate to other touchpoints.

But without using the broken record analogy, print means a whole lot more than the paper it’s printed on. Newsbrands and magazine brands are in strong health as evident by audience growth on other platforms and the new and exciting technology developments being employed by publishers.

In our analysis we have combined both print and digital editions (those that are a 95% replica of the print counterpart and read exactly like a magazine, on a digital platform such as a desktop or tablet device). These figures therefore exclude any fully interactive editions, which generally don’t have tablet edition ABC figures.

Looking at the latest print ABCs, all sectors have suffered decreases with the exception of the youth market. Pre-school titles are up 3.1% year on year (YoY), demonstrating that there is still an appetite for brand extensions of kids’ TV shows. This time around it’s Redan’s Peppa Pig taking share from a previous favourite, Immediate’s Charlie and Lola. The boy’s market is up a very healthy 19.2% with girl’s magazines static at +0.2%.

The men’s market overall is significantly down, -18.7% YoY, however when analysing the figures there is a clear split between the paid for weeklies such as Zoo and Nuts which remain in sharp decline, vs the monthly titles like Men’s Health and Esquire which continue to perform strongly both in print and digital formats.

Traditional weeklies have seen a small period on period (PoP) decline of 1.8% but this still represents a market that circulates 3.4 million, all of which are 100% actively purchased. This is also a sector where digital developments are starting to pay off, despite the slow start.

Best and Real People for example have experienced increases of 99% and 36% PoP respectively, an incredibly positive result and very telling for a market in which only two brands posted digital ABCs in the previous period, compared to seven this time around.

The last six months for the press market has meant even more mobile and tablet developments which are now readily used in print, offering even more sophisticated advertising opportunities. Click to buy apps have really come to the fore across the market, especially within the fashion sector and Immediate Media have stated that they are now in transition from a magazine business to a content platform and service business.

The Radio Times has built an online hub for readers with offers from key retail partners and this model is set to be rolled out across other Immediate titles. The use of Blippar and Aurasma continues to make significant strides and they been wholeheartedly pushed by publishers and media agencies alike.

The ABC results show us that there is still a huge appetite for print brands. Whether specialist, for kids, business or lifestyle the bottom line is that consumers want to be more in control of how they consume content, therefore there needs to be continued investment in digital platforms.

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; with rising print costs this is inevitable. Continued investment in different platforms and brand extensions that promote loyalty amongst existing readers, whilst inspiring new audiences, will ensure the sustained success of print brands.

Even as ABC circulations decline, their usage as a barometer of the strength of print brands also wanes. Only by looking holistically at reach across all touchpoints can we accurately assess their performance.

Today’s ABC Consumer magazine release celebrates yet another unprecedented milestone in measuring and reporting the breadth of magazine brands.

Encouragingly, more brands are declaring their digital edition circulations alongside those of their printed parents, compared to the same period last year. This is the clearest signal yet that ABC reporting is being recognised with the gold standard that it rightly deserves.

There’s no denying that growth in the reporting of digital editions is very significant but this is only part of the story. The dragging economy has hit the confidence of the magazine sector hard in recent years, with new launches at an all-time low; despite the iPad launching nearly 3 years ago, investment into digitisation has been until now extremely cautious. This is no great surprise given that the digital boom/bust of the early ‘noughties’ pushed many publishers to the brink of extinction.

With the economy finally rising from the depths of recession so too has the willingness to finally release the much needed investment that will take digital development to the next crucial stage. With content the single most valuable asset to print brands, the ability to push it out to multiple devices efficiently and inexpensively is paramount.

Building tablet, browser and mobile apps from scratch over and over again is very costly so many publishers have invested into state of the art Content Management systems (CMS) enabling them to Create Once & Publish Everywhere (COPE). This digitally intuitive design essentially adapts and reformats content to the correct device and is being adopted by the more progressive publishers.

With the ability to COPE, magazine brands have started to extend their brand reach beyond their native properties. The more progressive are pushing and seeding content to hosting partners such as Google Hangouts and Google Currents through to Flipboard, a content curation app which is proving popular with magazine and news brands alike. This can only be good news for advertisers looking to amplify their brand messaging.

What remains ever more crucial is making sure the brand is having the right kind of conversations with their audience, irrespective of the devices or platforms on which they consume. Quite simply the highest quality content will always be at the very heart of the magazine brand ecosystem.

Whilst it has been a yet another very challenging period for many, the medium to long term outlook appears to be relatively bright. There is a renewed confidence returning to this once irrepressible sector and a vibrancy that has been stifled by the longest recessionary period in living memory. But there is no room for complacency. Those who to continue to innovate and embrace change will only improve their chances of survival.

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often

The Jan-June 2013 magazine ABCs show another disappointing period for magazine publishers with all sectors down year on year. The overall market was down -13% YoY on UK actively purchased with only a handful of titles seeing an increase. These were the in news weeklies, home, gardening and the specialised titles in the motoring sectors.

It is great to see a continued increase (up +51% YoY) in the number of publishers investing in their Digital Replica Editions (where 95% of the content needs to be the same as the magazine offering).

Originally these were the only figures which could be combined with the print ABC figure to provide a Combined Circulation Chart (CCC). However, this has now been updated so the Digital Publications Certificate (where there is no limitation on how much print content is used in the app) can now also be included within the CCC.

Publishers such as Condé Nast are embracing this and are managing readers’ eyeballs through their digital editions, which they assure us are de-duped figures. Both GQ and Wired saw an increase in their CCC, up +0.3% and +0.2% respectively on actively purchased figures YoY. However, there was a decline when looking at same figures UK only (both titles down -3% YoY) which media buyers and advertisers need to be mindful of.

This is great news as it provides publishers with the opportunity to produce unique, creative and interactive apps. It also allows advertisers to create innovative and interactive advertising within this environment, subsequently providing the reader with more reasons to engage with both the print and tablet/app editions.

The ideal trading model for a publisher is to ensure their audience invests time and money in their magazine, tablet and website (i.e. total brand) offerings in order to maximize revenue. The ideal product will present their audience with 3 separate reading experiences, each with a unique experience dependent on platform and in doing so create 3 separate opportunities for advertisers to spend their marketing budgets.

We would therefore expect to see more publishers producing HTML5 native apps, however until now, time, cost and potential returns have been prohibitive. In a time when magazine sales and revenue are declining, large sales houses have not been able to justify heavy investment in producing bespoke tablet editions.

In the coming months we hope to see more publishers following the lead of others such as Dennis Publishing who have focused on producing bespoke magazine apps for their individual audiences and deliver responsive content for an audience that consume on multiple devices and screens.

There will be no quick fix option on producing the best magazine app with instant high returns; it is going to be a long process with mistakes and learnings along the way. Let’s not forget the iPad is only 3 years old and the digital magazine numbers are still very small, the total digital magazine figure for Jan-Jun 2013 is 315,000. However, the tide is turning and it seems publishers are finally starting to future proof themselves.

There are two glaring takeaways from today’s ABCs. Firstly, the most positive development continues to be the growth of digital edition circulation, which is up a further 58.9%. Secondly, it appears to have been a false dawn within the Women’s Lifestyle sector. Six months ago it was looking rosy but Company, Grazia and Elle have been rocked with large PoP drops to join the expected YoY declines.

Looking at where the biggest dips have occurred, it’s the titles aimed at younger generations that have been hit the hardest with increased frugality taking its toll on the major publishing houses. What is a larger indictment of this trend than the news that Glamour magazine is on the brink of losing its crown as the Queen of Women’s monthlies to Good Housekeeping?

So what does this tell us? As the digitally savvy youth audience moves online and magazines respond by optimising their content to the most relevant platforms, the paid-for titles in these sectors have a tough challenge to maintain viability in the face of an increasingly discerning consumer.

However, customer publishing magazines are thriving in these austere times, whilst Timeout’s move to a freesheet has resulted in a healthy uplift, reassuringly demonstrating a demand for the format and content if delivered in the right way. I’m particularly interested to see if the publisher’s new loyalty based business model pays off.

Generally the ABCs do tend to reflect the state of the economy and as such, I’d expect slightly more optimistic figures in the next edition as outlooks brighten. To say it’s all bad news would be overly pessimistic. While the way in which we consume content may be changing, the appetite is still evident for both the content and the format.

Admittedly, there’s still a long way to go and publishers need to keep a close eye on this shift, working with brands to create new, innovative forms of content and collaborations to build confidence in the medium.

This current release of ABC figures shows it has been another challenging period across the board. During this time we have seen the sad closure of some previously well-loved brands, including Easy Living and More magazine whilst circulations continue to be impacted by readers sticking to a smaller repertoire of preferred brands.

This is particularly evident in the women’s weekly market as Real Life, Traditional and Celebrity sectors all continue to report declines. The encouraging signs for these titles should be their period on period declines are, broadly speaking, much less in comparison to year on year. This should be taken as a positive sign that figures are settling down to a consistent level. The traditional sector in particular shows this with Woman and Woman’s Own reporting minimal PoP declines.

The news and current affairs market continues to remain fairly static in print with minimal declines illustrating the appetite for these titles. Being viewed by readers an informative necessity rather than an indulgent read could be the key to their success.

The much reported recovery of the housing market seems to have helped the home interest sector to hold strong. Titles such as Style at Home, Ideal Home, Elle Deco and Living etc have all posted increases year on year in print.

The hope for mass tablet sales at Christmas time encouraging uptake of digital editions hasn’t come to fruition as much as hoped. The numbers reported seem to show a slower uptake than initially thought but there is undeniable growth for many print brands.

Digital performance within the women’s monthly market has helped for some brands. Woman & Home, Good Housekeeping and Red have all shown healthy growth in these figures as the more mature, affluent female audience embrace tablets.

Other digital successes include upmarket women’s titles – Vogue, Tatler and Vanity Fair who have all increased their digital performance period on period despite posting declines of their printed product. The food titles BBC Good Food and Olive have shown strong digital increases as consumers use these as digital cook books on their work tops.

For magazines to continue to grow as more than just the printed product may take a bit more time than initially thought but the figures today show print brands are still beloved by many and worth spending the time and money investing in.

Yet again the top-line ABC figures make for uncomfortable reading. However, delve a little deeper and it is clear that there is still a firm love for print brands, just not all through the medium of print.

Years ago publishers could concentrate both their effort and their investment on chasing circulation figures – high value cover mounts, price incentives and aggressive marketing were all common place in a bid to increase numbers.

However, fast forward to 2013 and the ever tightening purse now needs to subsidise an array of print brand touch points from TV stations, mobile and tablet editions, along with spin off specialist titles.

It is no wonder that something has to give. Company magazine, which posted a disappointing decline of 37%, backed this sentiment with a quote from chief operating officer of Hearst Magazines UK, Anna Jones:

“We recently refocused the direction of Company magazine, to focus on a street-style fashion and beauty obsessed influencer audience and engage with them across print, web, mobile and also via a programme of events, with print being only part of the story.”

This was a common story across the board as magazines reposition themselves a brands, rather than print titles.

In fact the only sector to maintain healthy print circulations together with relatively small growth in digital editions is the Homes Sector. Undoubtedly bolstered by the British public’s growing love of property and the glimmering hope of a recovering housing market. Fairly new title Style at Home has shown consistent growth since its launch in early 2011, whilst more established titles such as Ideal Home also continue to flourish.

Other sectors have more of a mixed bag of results, namely the men’s sector which continues to house some heavily declining titles. We’ve said it before, but the figures really do declare that it is very much the end of the ‘lad’ mag era.

Where titles such as Zoo and Nuts struggle, more modest titles such as Shortlist and Sport continue to increase in numbers. Time will tell if the new toned down covers will actually be a blessing in disguise, or whether these titles have had their hay day.

Men’s Health posted much more healthy figures, and not for the first time the specialist titles have been hailed the heroes of this sector.

Perhaps it was the Olympics or maybe the increase in charity sporting events, however the increased love for sports and fitness was also evident in the women’s sector, where Zest and Women’s Health were two of the few success stories with increases in subscriptions and net circulation figures respectively.

Overall the key take out is that of course print titles still reach huge numbers, however, together with their digital counterparts, their circulations are huger still. We are still looking at print titles predominantly based on their print circulations (the same method of evaluation as 20 odd years ago). Accounting for digital figures remains murky business, and sometimes there feels very little continuity across the industry.

Of course the introduction of including tablet editions as part of the ABCs was a great start, however to really show the value of what print brands have to offer we need a clearer way of measuring circulation across multiple touch points – print, online, tablet and mobile.