ABC Results Jul-Dec 2007: Women’s Weeklies See Sizeable Declines With Few Bucking The Trend

It was a generally gloomy picture in the women’s weekly market, with sizeable declines for several titles and few exceptions to the trend.

Take A Break remained top with a circulation of a little over a million for July to December 2007, despite a decline of over 26,000 copies year on year.

Celebrity focused title, Heat, reported a decline of 11% year on year, and 4.5% period on period. This leaves its total at around 533,000 copies, compared to Hello!‘s 405,615 following a 2% year on year fall.

However, OK! bucked the trend, adding 9.5% to its total year on year, and almost 23% period on period. The magazine’s total ABC for July to December 2007 stands at 683,451.

Grazia, which was bought from Emap by Bauer Consumer Media in December (see Media In The City: Emap Sells Magazine And Radio Arms To H Bauer), also managed to add copies to its circulation for the period. The title rose 8% year on year, taking its total to around 227,100.

This was behind IPC’s Look (see NewsLine Feature: Look, Another Women’s Weekly), which reported a figure of 305,603. This was down period on period by 4.2%.

Other IPC titles saw declines, with Woman, Woman’s Own and Woman’s Weekly all down year on year.

Woman, which recently announced its second revamp in 18 months (see Woman Unveils Second Revamp In 18 Months), was down 4.5% year on year but up slightly period on period, now reporting a figure of over 370,000.

Woman’s Own, which itself revamped in April 2007 (see Woman’s Own Revamps In Bid To Halt Declining Sales), now sits at under 350,000 after losing over 7,500 issues year on year but rising 1.3% period on period.

Meanwhile, Woman’s Weekly dropped over 20,000 copies year on year, taking its total to over 367,000.

Other IPC title, Now, was down 13% year on year for the period, to 470,290.

Bella recorded a significant real term decline, of nearly 30% or a little under 95,000 copies year on year. Period on period this was an almost 10.5%, taking its total to 221,661.

A sizeable chunk was lost from Bauer’s Closer, which dropped almost 11% of its total year on year. The magazine was also down almost 4% period on period, taking its total to around 548,600.

Love It! dropped 10% year on year and over 8% period on period, now reporting an ABC of 367,199. Real People was also down, by more than 13% year on year and period on period to almost 269,400.

Best and Chat also fell, by over 31,500 copies and over 18,000 copies year on year respectively. Best now reports an ABC of 330,770, whilst Chat‘s total for the period is just short of 519,500.

Northern and Shell’s Star magazine has seen a sizeable upturn, of almost 37,000 copies year on year. This leaves its total at 305,806 following the 13.4% year on year and 20.3% period on period increase.

The figures listed in NewsLine’s ABC reports are those reported by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) as at Thursday 14 February 2008. Late submissions and changes may be made after this date, and will thereafter be amended in MediaTel’s Press database.

ABC: 01442 870 800 www.abc.org.uk