ABC Consumer July – December 2014: Women’s Weeklies

For the second period Newsline is reporting on combined print and digital (gross) figures for all magazine brands, as this is now ABC’s “headline figure”.

Although the separate figures for print and digital are revealed in the charts below, all copy will only reference combined data.

The second half of 2014 saw mixed fortunes for the women’s weekly magazine market – although it was a better performance than the first half of the year – and also witnessed some movement in the rankings.

Take a Break continues to lead the market despite a -1.7% decline in circulation, period on period (PoP), and a -7.3% drop year on year. The magazine’s combined print and digital sales now average almost 646,000 each week.

Woman’s Weekly has managed to move up the rankings and is now in second place, recording period on period growth of 0.6%. The title now records an average weekly circulation of almost 308,000 for combined print and digital formats.

Chat has also moved up the rankings, from fourth place to third, despite a -1.8% drop, PoP, and a -8.5% drop, YoY. The title recorded a circulation of almost 303,000.

The change in the top three rankings means New! and Closer have both dropped down, occupying the fourth and fifth places, respectively. New! was down -8.1% (PoP) and Closer down -4.5%. More worryingly, however, Northern and Shell New! recorded a year on year drop of -20.4%.

The largest period on period gain was recorded by OK magazine, another Northern and Shell’s stalwart, which was up 5.9% – although the magazine also saw a year on year decline of -5.1%.

The worst performance for the July – December period was recorded by Time Inc UK’s Now, which took a -10.2% hit. Year on year the title was down -17.3% and now averages almost 163,000 weekly print and digital sales.

In total, 14 out of 21 titles in the market recorded declines in (gross) print and digital circulation.