Take A Break Retains Its Lead Of Women’s Weekly Market
Bauer’s Take A Break continues to stroll ahead in the women’s weeklies market with a massive 501,424 copies in front of its nearest rival, Woman magazine. In the latest ABC data, released today, Take A Break‘s circulation for the six-monthly period ending December 2000 was 1,137,952, which, despite its lead in the sector, marked a year on year decline of 7.5%.
IPC’s Woman magazine maintained its position as second in the sector in a year on year analysis, with a circulation of 636,528.
Celebrity magazines performed well during the period. Hello! saw a small increase year on year (up 1.5%), Northern & Shell’s OK Magazine – in third place in the women’s weeklies market – saw its sales leap by 6.2%.
Now magazine has obviously been the best place to get gossip in recent months. It saw a massive 20% rise in sales, the largest increase in the market, taking its circulation to 79,268. A new edition to the Now brand name has been audited for the first time. Now – Style Series, which is an annual title, received a figure of 159,698 for Jul-Dec 2000.
| Title | Publishing Company | Jul 99-Dec 99 | Jul 00-Dec 00 | Actual Change | % Change |
| Bella | H Bauer Publishing | 572,151 | 532,668 | -39,483 | -6.9 |
| Best | National Magazine Company | 471,735 | 431,352 | -40,383 | -8.6 |
| Chat | IPC Media | 498,619 | 469,769 | -28,850 | -5.8 |
| Hello! | Hello Ltd | 495,349 | 502,679 | 7,330 | 1.5 |
| Lady | Lady | 42,505 | 40,815 | -1,690 | -4.0 |
| Now | IPC Media | 396,303 | 475,571 | 79,268 | 20.0 |
| Now – Style Series | IPC Media | n/a | 159,698 | n/a | n/a |
| OK Magazine | Northern & Shell | 551,901 | 586,176 | 34,275 | 6.2 |
| Peoples Friend | DC Thomson & Co | 412,570 | 399,339 | -13,231 | -3.2 |
| Take A Break | H Bauer Publishing | 1,230,758 | 1,137,952 | -92,806 | -7.5 |
| Thats Life! | H Bauer Publishing | 526,845 | 569,804 | 42,959 | 8.2 |
| Woman | IPC Media | 670,241 | 636,528 | -33,713 | -5.0 |
| Womans Own | IPC Media | 569,019 | 553,701 | -15,318 | -2.7 |
| Womans Realm | IPC Media | 179,345 | 152,053 | -27,292 | -15.2 |
| Womans Weekly | IPC Media | 547,953 | 496,162 | -51,791 | -9.5 |
| Total | 7,165,294 | 7,144,267 | -21,027 | -0.3 |
IPC has the majority of titles in this market including Chat, Woman, Woman’s Own, Woman’s Realm and Woman’s Weekly. All of these titles saw a slump in their latest figures: Chat saw a 5.8% decrease in copies; Woman fell by 5%, Woman’s Own dropped 2.7%, Woman’s Realm fell 15.2% and Woman’s Weekly took a dive of 9.5%. The afore-mentioned Now is the only increase from the publisher during the period.
H Bauer publishing came second out of the publishers with a 31.6% share of the women’s weeklies markets. National Magazine’s company’s recent acquisition of Gruner & Jahr has seen their take over the title Best, which had a circulation decrease of 8.6%.
| Women’s Weeklies Market Share By Publishing Company | ||
| Publishing Company | Jul 00-Dec 00 | |
| DC Thomson & Co Ltd | 399,339 | 5.59 |
| H Bauer Publishing | 2,240,424 | 31.36 |
| Hola SA | 502,679 | 7.04 |
| IPC Media Ltd | 2,943,482 | 41.20 |
| Lady | 40,815 | 0.57 |
| National Magazine Company | 431,352 | 6.04 |
| Northern & Shell Plc | 586,176 | 8.20 |
| Total | 7,144,267 | 100.00 |
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