Magazines Hoping For Happy Valentine From ABC
The consumer magazine industry will be hoping for more than Valentine’s cards tomorrow, as the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) releases circulation figures for the July-December 2001 period.
In the last set of figures, the big stories were Emap’s Heat, once again posting the spectacular year on year rises that earned Mark Frith his Editor of the Year award (see Editors Honoured In BSME Awards) and new launch Glamour which almost succeeded in toppling Cosmopolitan from its glossy top spot (see Glamour Makes Stunning 450,000 ABC Debut).
This time around, the list of first time reporters includes two more imported US formats: Natmag’s “baby glossy” CosmoGirl and Time Life Entertainment’s InStyle. The former has only been around for a few months in a notoriously fickle market, but has its older sister’s long standing reputation on the news-stands, along with considerable publisher investment (see Cosmogirl Launches With £5m Campaign) to help out. The latter has been a success story in the States, but was somewhat overshadowed, when it launched early last year, by the spectacular entrance of the aforementioned Glamour. Nevertheless, a publishers’ statement released at the time of the January-June ABC figures said that InStyle had achieved its target circulation of 150,000 (see InStyle Hits Circulation Target), which, if corroborated by Thursday’s figures would place it around the middle of the women’s monthly market.
Significant absentees from the Women’s monthly list will be Attic Futura’s health title Shine and veteran IPC title Woman’s Journal, which both closed in the second half of last year. Shine’s demise seems to prove that despite our increasing interest in health and fitness, the market for magazines on the subject remains limited (see Lights Out For Shine Magazine), while Woman’s Journal’s decline and fall, part of a savage IPC cull, illustrates that a long and respected history will not save a title from being overtaken by the march of modernisation (see IPC Closes Six Magazines).
On the subject of modern times, the increasing popularity of home internet usage and gaming is reflected in the fact that five of the titles reporting for the first time this period relate to these subjects, including IPC’s WebUser. This data release will also be the first opportunity to see audited evidence of the performance of H Bauer’s Real, which breaks new ground in being a glossy fortnightly that aims to sit between the loyalty of the Women’s Weekly market and the glamour of the Monthly market. Initial reports of sales were very positive (see Real Success For New Woman’s Fortnightly), so this title’s figures are likely to arouse some interest.
The Men’s lifestyle market has lost quite a few of its members since a year ago, and just before Christmas Emap’s FHM Bionic joined the list of the lost (see Emap To Close FHM Bionic). This despite the fact that the original FHM continues to head up the market, and that Emap had enough confidence to up the title’s circulation from a bi-annual to a monthly just months before its closure. In fact, it is the men’s market, including FHM in particular, which is widely expected to carry the bad news for the industry. The situation, it seems, has gone full circle compared to a few years ago, when this was the dynamic sector while Women’s Monthly market was seen as overstuffed and stagnating. Thanks to the kick in the butt provided by Glamour, InStyle and even, perhaps in spite of its failure Nova, it is now the Men’s market which is looking to perk up compared to its rejuvenated sister.
ABC: 01442 870 800 www.abc.org.uk
Recent Magazine stories from NewsLine: Hallmark Uses Emap Teen Databases For Valentine’s Promotion Health Mag Zest Given £0.5m Makeover Emap To Launch New Teen Weekly
Subscribers will be able to access a topline overview of the Jul-Dec 01 ABC results on NewsLine following the 5pm embargo on Thursday 14 February. Full reports will follow on Friday 15 February and all figures will be available in the Press database