ABC consumer magazine results: Agency views

Jessica Evans, media director, Carat UK

It’s encouraging that in the interests of greater transparency, the July – December 2013 ABC results report the print and digital editions, as mandatory.

The ABC results provide a valuable glimpse into the performance of the print brands, although still not in their entirety. Whilst the inclusion of digital editions into the headline press figure is positive, the figures do not include fully interactive tablet editions, nor mobile, website or other brand extensions such as events. Therefore whilst it’s a step closer to analysing the total brand footprint, we’re still not entirely there yet.

In this period we have also seen the launch of several new digital innovations. Bauer’s The Debrief launched this year, a digital only magazine which is arguably aiming to fill the void left by the closure of More! magazine to cater for shopping, style and news in a convergent world where consumers expect quick, digestible and current news and trends.

Never Underdressed, another launch from Shortlist Media, is another example of how publishers are innovating in the digital sphere and something we expect to see more of this year.

The announcement that Newsweek is bringing back its print edition, that Hearst is launching a British version of Town & Country and the news that Net-a-Porter is launching a luxury printed product, Porter Magazine, to support its hugely successful online shopping portal all go to prove that there is still a valuable role of the printed product.

The ABC results show us that there is still a huge appetite for print brands but the bottom line is that consumers want to be more in control of how they consume content.

It doesn’t really matter what platform the content is printed on, as long as we can reach consumers how they like, when they like and that the content is what they want to read.

Continued investment in different platforms and brand extensions that promote loyalty amongst existing readers, whilst inspiring new audiences, is pivotal.

Adam Crow, head of print brands, MediaCom

This period’s ABC Consumer magazine release has brought with it yet another unprecedented milestone in the history of reporting of both print and digital edition circulation data. This reflects a colossal 43% increase of digital editions being reported this period.

For the first time, effective from the December reporting period, the combined totals of print and digital edition circulations will be reported on an all new ABC Certificate. The Consumer Magazine Certificate will be renamed ‘Combined Total Circulation Certificate’.

As part of this change, from June 2014 it will be mandatory for all ABC Consumer Magazine titles to report data on a monthly basis, as well as a Total Average Net Circulation figure for the half-year or full year. Notably, it’s only optional for the current release.

Although I welcome the improved levels of transparency, there is one note of caution. The combined circulation figure is actually ‘gross’ total containing varying levels of duplication making it difficult to establish genuine breadth of the brand.

The monthly totals and the proportion which is ‘Actively Purchased’ will appear now on every Consumer Magazine ABC certificate. Importantly, the number of bundled subscriptions sold for a combined print and digital package will also be clearly highlighted on the all new certificate.

There’s no denying that growth in the reporting of combined circulation is yet another significant step forward but this is only part of the story. Whilst circulation (sales) are clearly the lifeblood of any print brand, one reporting issue for digital editions still remains unresolved – are they actually opened or read?

Magazine brand publishers have the option to report whether and how often their digital editions have been opened or read against an ABC metric called Publication Active View (PAV). It is currently only optional for magazine publishers, but mandatory for newsbrands. Put simply, a PAV is defined as single copy of a publication actively opened by a device for viewing.

Whilst I recognise that are some technical challenges and cost implications for both publishers and the ABC alike, greater transparency and progressive behaviour can only benefit magazine brands. For the time being at least, circulation remains the preferred metric for magazine brand publishers – but for how long?

There’s no doubt this has been a yet another challenging period for many, but magazine brand publishers are a canny bunch who through continual innovation, re-invigoration and adaptation have the prospect of a bright future ahead.

Leah Annett, acting press director, Initiative

Publishing combined, audited, print and digital circulations feels like the dawn of a new era. There is no doubt that it is monumental step forwards towards creating a unified measurement tool for print brands, one that is welcomed and applauded.

But with many well-crafted and established tablet propositions (like Empire) choosing not, or being unable to submit figures (only those with a 95% replica of the magazine can be counted), and figures referring to subscriptions not downloads, these latest combined ABC figures only paint part of the picture.

But like an overexcited kid at Christmas I felt slightly disappointed when I got my sneak peak at what I’d been waiting for. Don’t get me wrong there are some seriously impressive results (dominated by upmarket and specialist titles) but somehow looking at these figures in the cold light of day I felt rather underwhelmed by the sheer numbers behind these digital editions (546,822 in total, 241,752 in the UK).

As publishing brands continue to diversify and adapt content across platforms, consumers are presented with new opportunities to absorb, interact and connect with content. As publishing brands broaden their reach (print, tablet, mobile, desktop and beyond) advertisers are offered new ways to reach a wider network of people. Exciting times, but there is still so much to learn about the value and relationships between these connections.

Against this backdrop of new avenues for content, print retains, despite losses, an ability to deliver significant reach in a number of categories. TV Listings for example, despite some severe drops, continue to post a collective circulate over four million at news-stands. Bauer’s What’s on TV and IPC’s TV Choice continuing to maintain circulations above the million mark highlighting the value of print brands in a multi-screen TV nation.

Within the women’s monthly market it is the well-established titles that remain strong (Good Housekeeping and Women & Home remain relatively static) showing a loyal following amongst the older age readers. This, overlaid with healthy digital edition figures highlights that the older, more upmarket consumer is comfortable to spend time with their magazine regardless of platform.

Whilst this trend towards stability in the older end of the market is reflected in the women’s weeklies market (People’s Friend and Women’s Weekly), tablet within this category appears particularly successful within the celebrity market. Well established brands, OK! and Hello, both sitting in the top 20 rank of digital editions, boast healthy digital edition figures (6.8 and 6.4k, respectively).

As younger readers snacking on content seem lured by the array of content cross digital platforms there is no doubt that for many magazine brands remain an integral and well established part of their routine.

Rachel Plunkett, activation account director, Starcom MediaVest Group

Today marked a huge leap for magazine brands as both print and digital copies were measured together to give a truer reflection of brand success. Of course this by no means is the finishing line for ABC measurement. There is still a long way to go before the released figures give a wholly accurate account of each magazine brand and its loyal readers.

Social media, events and dynamic tablet editions for instance are not currently included in the results, however it is a start. Most importantly it is encouraging the industry to look at audiences rather than platforms. In a similar way to how some of the national newsbrands have begun to trade, the new era in ‘press’ planning and buying goes far beyond paper.

We need to tap into these highly loyal readers through the touch-point they are consuming at any given time, whether that be tablet on the way into work or printed magazine last thing at night.

Exciting times for print brands and undoubtedly a move that will, once the full brand extensions can be accounted for, begin to show ABC results that move up instead of down.

Emma Cranston, investment director, Manning Gottlieb OMD

It’s a new era for print reporting because finally the magazines ABC’s headline figure is a combined print and digital figure (digital replica editions, it does not include website reach).

This is an exciting time for publishers because they have the opportunity to demonstrate how their audiences are not leaving their stables altogether but are simply consuming their content on a different platform.

As always, this comes with some caution, the figures are not de-duplicated, therefore a reader could be counted twice if the bundle cost is 20% or more than a print standalone subscription, which can inflate some of the figures reported.

So what effect has this had on the overall magazine figures for Jul-Dec 2013? Pure print circulations are down -9.07% YoY, when we include the digital editions this figure marginally improves to -8.7%.

Digital editions are up +46% YoY to 374,631, it is still small numbers but the only way is up!

With this pioneering move from the ABC, publishers need to embrace the change and invest into their digital offerings to ensure what consumers are receiving pushes and utilise the capabilities of the platform they are published on.

Many magazines are still producing static, unimaginative issues on the digital devices so we need to see creativity and innovation to entice and retain the readers.

All sectors saw a decline YoY, News and Current affairs fared the storm the best with a decline of just -1.5%. It is also interesting to note, that this sector’s digital reporting makes up 31% of the total digital editions illustrating that they are investing and evolving in this domain.

Although we have seen closures for this period from Zest and TV Pick (plus Front magazine has just announced they have published their last issue) there have been new launches which are digitally focused including Bauer’s DeBrief (an innovative magazine on a digital only platform) and Optima’s Clique (first shoppable magazine) showing that publishers are still investing and putting digital at the heart of these launches.

We would like to see more publishers taking more challenges and invest into their digital properties in order to future proof themselves.