ABC Consumer July-Dec 2013: Overview
The latest ABC release for the July to December 2013 period charts all the trends for the print magazine market. Here is Newsline’s overview – with links to full articles for each market.
Click here for the Print & Digital Combined figures.
Click here for opinion and analysis from the agencies.
By Sector
The second half of 2013 saw a better performance for the Women’s Weeklies magazine market, with only a marginal decline of 0.6% recorded – compared with -6.6% for the January – June period.
The market saw no change of movement in the top three titles, with Take a Break maintaining its lead despite a -3.3% period of period (PoP) change.
The H Bauer magazine was still selling a healthy 696,500 copies each month but recorded a -7.1% year on year (YoY) decline.
In second place was Northern & Shell’s New!, down -3.2% for the period and -7.3% YoY. The title dropped 29,450 copies to record a monthly average of 373,972 copies.
Maintaining its third place slot was Closer, down -4.1% this period and -14.9% over the year. The magazine, published by Bauer Consumer Media, sold a monthly average of almost 337,190 copies – down by a little over 58,800 for the year.
The Home Interest magazine market recorded a slight decline of -1.7% year on year.
Yearly ABC reporting title WI Life had the highest circulation for the period, with a 0.3% YoY increase.
Ideal Home had the the second highest circulation, despite a -3.5% PoP change. The title secured an average monthly circulation of just under 191,200 – with only a 0.4% change across the year.
Country Living was up 1.3% on the last period. The Hearst title now records an average monthly circulation of almost 187,360 – down only 814 copies over the year.
Free titles Shortlist and Sport once again easily secured the top two spots in the Men’s Lifestyle market.
Men’s Health, which although down -0.3% period on period (PoP), sold over 200,000 copies, while Conde Nast’s popular men’s title, GQ was down -2.5% with 115,000 copies.
Few titles in the market recorded an increase in circulation between July and December, with Esquire coming out on top in terms of percentage growth with a 4.2% lift to take its monthly circulation to over 55,000 – ahead of Nuts and Men’s Fitness.
Not such good news for so-called lads’ mags, with FHM, Nuts and Zoo all recording both period and yearly decreases in circulation.
Free magazines John Lewis Edition, ASOS.com and Stylist maintained the top three spots in the Women’s Lifestyle market – all recording average monthly circulation figures over 435,000 copies.
Up both 3.9% period on period (PoP) and 0.4% year on year, Good Housekeeping took the fourth spot, while a 2.5% PoP increase for Conde Nast’s Glamour secured the magazine fifth place with an average of 410,500 copies each month.
However, the popular monthly glossy was down almost 14,000 over the year.
The publisher recorded period declines elsewhere, with Vanity Fair down -8% PoP and Tatler down -3.6% PoP.
However, the period declines across the Women’s Lifestyle titles were marginal compared with the yearly figures, with Hearst Magazine’s Company magazine hit hardest, down -31.8% year on year – a total average monthly loss of 41,000.
The TV Listings market was down -4.5% year on year.
H Bauer Publishing’s TV Choice was the only title to record both a period and yearly increase in average monthly circulation – up 7.2% PoP and 11.8% YoY to secure an extra 145,000 copies.
The period increases elsewhere in the sector were marginal, however, with TV Times up 2.6% PoP, Radio Times up 2.3% PoP and Inside Soap up 1.7% PoP.
Private Eye and The Week once again secured the top two spots in the News and Current Affairs Market, recording marginal period on period (PoP) increases – up 0.6% and 0.5%, respectively – Private Eye both experienced small declines over the year.
BBC History Magazine also performed reasonably well – up 4.1% PoP and 6.3% YoY to increase its circulation by an average of 4,700 each month.
ABC Top 100 Magazines – Total Average Net Circulation/Distribution
The National Trust Magazine took the top spot for the July to December 2013 period, up 5% year on year (YoY) to secure an average monthly circulation of just over 2 million copies; however as the magazine only reports on a yearly basis, there is no comparable period on period (PoP) data.
With a 1.2% YoY increase and 1.4% PoP increase, Asda Magazine claimed the second spot to secure a monthly circulation of 1.98 million, while a -0.7% YoY and -1% PoP decline saw rival Tesco move down to third place with 1.94 million copies.
With a 7.2% increase over the period, TV Choice came in third (1.37 million), followed by Morrisons Magazine, up 3.1% PoP to an average monthly circulation of 1.33 million.
Waitrose Kitchen saw incredible growth over both the period and the year, up 59.8% PoP and 85.1% YoY to see the title net an average circulation just short of 660,000.
Not such good news for Readers Digest and TV Easy, which recorded the greatest yearly losses – down -23.7% and -24.4%, respectively.
ABC Top 100 Actively Purchased Magazines (UK&RoI)
TV Listing magazines have once again reclaimed the leading spots for the ABC top 100 actively purchased magazines, no doubt bolstered by the Christmas TV viewing period.
TV Choice remains in first position, followed by What’s on TV and the Radio Times.
Take a Break, Saga Magazine and Slimming World Magazine made the fourth, fifth and sixth places.
Note: Sector by sector figures reported elsewhere on Newsline are total figures and will include all global sales.