If it was a reality TV show, we might call it ‘The Weakest Title’ or ‘The Amazing Race to the Bottom.’
But unfortunately, it’s not a show; it’s an entire industry.
The most recent report from the Audit Bureau of Circulations paints a bleak picture of the magazine industry as a whole, as newsstand sales continued their steady descent during the first half of 2012.
Overall newsstand sales dropped nearly 10% with 21 of the top 25 magazines seeing losses. The weakest contenders belong to the celebrity category. The once-reliable PEOPLE* dropped by more than 18%. US WEEKLY*, IN TOUCH WEEKLY*, and STAR* also saw double-digit declines. Weekly news magazines, like NEWSWEEK* and TIME*, slumped further as well, still losing ground in the 24/7 news cycle.
Women’s and fashion titles took a hit as well. VANITY FAIR* was down by nearly 19%, VOGUE* by more than 16% and COSMOPOLITAN* by over 15%. The biggest loser in this category was WEIGHT WATCHERS*, which shed more than 27% of its single-copy sales.
There were some bright spots in food and shelter titles. Sales of industry darling FOOD NETWORK MAGAZINE* took off, rising almost 18%. WOMAN’S DAY* and FAMILY CIRCLE* saw respective gains of 8% and 6%. ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST* was up by more than 8%, proving we all need to dream a little.
For the first time, the ABC reported separate numbers for digital editions of magazines, which account for less than 2% of all copies sold. The big winner, by a mile, was GAME INFORMER* with a digital circulation of 1.2 million. Following at a distant second is MAXIM* with fewer than 300,000 digital copies.
Filed under: Circulation, Digital media, Financials, Magazine publishing, North American magazines, US Magazines, US Publishers | Leave a Comment »
