ABC July – Dec 2010 Consumer Magazines round-up

ABC figures for July to December 2010 show a fairly sorry picture for the consumer magazine market, with many paid-for titles posting declines.

Sky continues to dominate the ABC Top Magazines list in terms of total circulation with Sky Magazine, Sky Sports Magazine (UK) and Sky Movies Magazine (UK edition).

Unsurprisingly, other freebies including offerings from supermarket brands Tesco, Asda and Morrisons also feature highly in the Top 100 list.

However, when it comes to actively purchased magazines, the TV sector claims the top spots. TV Choice remains the highest selling title, closely followed by What’s on TV and Radio Times.

Women’s magazines make up the other top-selling titles – with Take a Break, New!, Closer, Glamour, OK! Magazine and Good Housekeeping all featuring in the top ten, despite some drops in circulation during the July to December period.

Richard Desmond’s OK! Magazine, Heat and Reader’s Digest were among some of the worst casualties during the six-month period, all posting substantial year on year percetange declines.

Unfortunately, the overall market followed a similar trend with very few magazines able to boast a significant increase in circulation compared with this time last year. However, Healthy, Essentials and The Economist managed to buck the trend.

The Top 100 Magazines list based on total average circulation/distribution shows a slightly different picture, which is to be expected. Asda Magazine, Morrisons Magazine and Sainsbury’s Little Ones all enjoyed a healthy increase in circulation during the year, indicating that freebies are likely to be the winners of this ABC release.

Full market sector analysis and data will be available on Newsline this afternoon.

MediaTel Subscribers can get quick access to all the latest circulation figures via the ABC Circulation: Consumer Magazines report.

Log into MediaTel first, for the link to take you directly to the report.