NRS PADD: Loyal print following for magazine brands

Magazines are proof that print is still very much in demand, with the latest NRS results for the January – December 2015 period pointing to a loyal, inky-fingered audience; however, mobile and tablet devices, as ever, are still proving to be increasingly valuable for a number of magazine brands.

Perhaps a sign that niche content is better served up in printed form, readers of New Scientist, National Geographic and Men’s Health all prefer to pick up physical copies of their chosen brand – with mobile adding little value to overall readership. In fact, just 5% of New Scientist’s total audience comes from mobile.

Other print-heavy titles include Hello!, Heat, OK! and Reveal; however, mobile plays a much more vital role to overall readership for these brands – adding 66% to OK!’s print and PC readership, 40% to Heat’s, 39% to Reveal’s and 28% to Hello!.

Amid a print-strong market, four brands buck the trend, with BBC Good Food, Cosmopolitan, Time Out and NME seeing the majority of their readership come from mobile.

[advert position=”left”]

Mobile increases BBC Good Food’s print and PC audience by a massive 160% – making it the most popular magazine brand with a combined audience of almost 9.7 million.

Mobile also increases NME’s print and PC readership by 130%, Time Out’s by 94% and Cosmopolitan’s by 90%.

According to the NRS, 95% of British adults (15+) consume news or magazine brand content each month, with mobile and tablet adding 78% net reach to the individual footprints of the magazines and newsbrands measured across all three platforms.