NewsLine Column: Riding The Celebrity Wave
The celebrity magazine market has gone from strength to strength over recent months as readers go in search of the latest gossip on the lives of the rich and famous. With this in mind, Sarah Fisher, a publishing director at IPC Connect, examines the impact of new launches on the sector…
The celebrity sector has seen an explosion of activity in the last nine months. There are now six titles in the market compared to four this time last year.
The launches of Closer last Autumn and New in March of this year were supported by a combined spend of over £12 million.
This period has also seen an unprecedented level of marketing activity from the established brands – with all four spending on above-the-line advertising and added-value promotions at point of sale.
Make no mistake, it’s been the fiercest competitive context and the hardest fought sector of them all.
So what’s the impact of the new launches on the latest round of ABC figures, for January to June 2003?
Well, it’s twofold. Firstly, they’ve significantly grown the market. And secondly, they have slowed the growth of the existing brands – with the higher-priced picture books – Hello and OK! – the most affected.
In 2002, total sales of celebrity magazines stood at nearly 1.8 million copies a week. The new ABC figures indicate that volume has grown by a massive 38% year on year to just under 2.5 million copies.
Retail sales value has also grown significantly, up 22% year on year from £138 million in 2002 to an estimated £168 million today.
It is important, though, to note the underlying trend associated with this volume and value growth.
Comparing year on year volume growth for celebrity magazines at the end of last year, with the year on year growth experienced in the first half of this year, we see volume growth up 11 percentage points from 27% year on year to 38%.
Value growth, however, is quite different. It’s still strong – at 22% – but the rate of growth is falling compared to the 29% growth rate experienced in the second half of last year.
So it’s clear that both volume and value are up – but value growth is not what it was before the launch of the budget-priced New.
Against this fiercely competitive backdrop Now, the best-selling title in the sector, retained its market leadership, posting an ABC of 590,544 – up 3.6% year on year.
This is a truly outstanding performance in an aggressive environment. Even more so, when you look at the performance of the more old-fashioned picture books, OK! and Hello.
They’ve seen a real slide in the last six months. Hello has dropped 32.9% on the year, while OK! has lost 14.8% over the same period – and it’s still carrying a sizeable portion of bulks.
Comparatively, Now has maintained its market leadership, outselling Heat, its nearest rival, by 27,000 copies a month on the UK news-stand – and it’s fully actively purchased.
In terms of the future, only the most foolhardy would rush to make predictions. It’s clearly still an incredibly dynamic market. And our research tells us there is plenty of room for growth, with huge potential to convert women with an interest in celebrities who currently don’t purchase a celebrity weekly.
But they need the right brands. They’re looking for innovative and original content, and editors who really understand them. Now‘s Jane Ennis has an incredible track record, with four British Society of Magazine Editors’ Awards under her belt and, this year, a PPA Award to add to the collection.
The only clear predictions I’m going to make are that Jane and her team will continue to lead the market in terms of innovation and originality, and that consumer will continue to demand the very best celebrity coverage from their magazines.
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