ABC Consumer Jan-June 2013: Overview

Today’s ABC release, for the January to June 2013 period, charts the continuing downward trend for the consumer magazine print market, with just a few exceptions.

Click the links for full breakdowns.

By Sector

Eight of the 14 titles in ABC’s analysis for Men’s Lifestyle recorded period on period (PoP) declines, with Nuts – which has faced criticism recently and has been the subject of an ongoing ‘modesty’ battle with retailers – hit hardest, down -26.7% PoP and -34.8% year on year (YoY), losing 31,353 copies.

Another lads’ mag, Zoo, was also hit hard, down -19.2% PoP and -23.1% YoY, losing 10,714 copies.

Overall the Men’s Lifestyle sector was down -3.2% YoY.

The Women’s Lifestyle sector, which last period was looking reasonably healthy with ten titles posting year on year increases and twelve period on period increases, has seen a reversal of fortunes. 22 of the 27 titles recorded both PoP and YoY declines with Company, WM The Womans Magazine and Elle hit hardest this period, seeing declines of -29.7%, -13% and -12.3%, respectively.

All of the titles in the Women’s Weeklies sector were down year on year, with the highest recorded period growth coming from People’s Friend at just 1.3%.

The only other title to see any period on period gain was Women’s Weekly (0.1%), while Love It! and Reveal both suffered huge losses – down -19.7% and -18.4% PoP, respectively.

The Home Interest sector fared slightly better than the Jul-Dec 2012 figures, down just -1.7% year on year and -0.8% period on period.

Ideal Home managed to keep the top spot, seeing a healthy period on period increase of 4% – just short of 200,000 copies.

However, it was Style at Home that celebrated the greatest gains both year on year and period and period, up 19.9% and 9.1%, respectively.

In the News & Current Affairs sector (including Business and Finance), Private Eye remained at the top of the chart between January and June this year, securing almost 223,000 copies, despite experiencing both slight year on year and period on period declines.

The Business and Finance sector celebrated an even greater YoY lift this time round, up 11.7% (785,758 copies).

MoneyWeek saw the biggest PoP boost, up 12.1%, with Investors Chronicle and Shares also experiencing gains (4% and 0.8%, respectively).

Overall, the TV Listings sector was down -6.3% year on year and -5.8% period on period.

H Bauer Publishing’s TV Choice remained in poll position, up 4.2% PoP and 0.3% YoY, selling almost 1.3 million copies.

ABC Top 100 Actively Purchased Magazines (UK&RoI)

TV Choice remains in the top position in the ABC Top 100 Actively Purchased Magazines, but other TV listing titles have dropped out of the top five this period to see BBC Gardeners’ World and pre-school magazine Ocotonauts, based on the CBeebies series, follow up in second and third places, respectively.

The first 40 magazines in the top 100 actively purchased titles posted period on period increases, however, BBC Gardeners’ World saw year or year declines of 16,403 while fourth place-holder, Girl Talk Art, was down almost 20,000 year on year.

Note: Sector by sector figures reported elsewhere on Newsline are total figures and will include all global sales.

ABC Top 100 Magazines – Total Average Net Circulation/Distribution

Tesco Magazine and Asda Magazine maintained the top two spots, however it was Tesco that came in at number one this time around, ending the period with a circulation of 1.95 million.

Morrisons Magazine came in at third position, recording a slight period decline of -0.5%, however, seeing a healthy 10.3% year on year increase – significantly higher than the two supermarket rivals above.

Waitrose Kitchen recorded both strong yearly and period growth, up 17.4% and 15.9%, respectively, to bag 403,000 copies.

However, it was TimeOut magazine that saw the most impressive boost over the year, up 487.2% and climbing ten spots to 27th overall.

Publishers

Mixed fortunes for consumer print publishers as Bauer Consumer Media see a -10.1% year on year decline, Hearst Magazines UK drop -11.3% whilst H Bauer Publishing see a small 1% increase. All the details here.

Infographic: Top Ten Digital Editions by Circulation

MediaTel subscribers can get quick access to all the latest circulation figures in our ABC Circulation: Consumer Magazines report.