Magazines are a discretionary spend and while most of us will continue to buy one newspaper a day (or go online to read it for free when we get to work), we’ll cut back on frittering our money away on the glossys. And then very soon, we realise that it’s very easy to get by with out them.
Last week I treated myself to two magazines, which must be the first time in about six months.
All this is rather sad for the thousands of journalists working in the magazine industry, and the stand-out trend in the latest ABC figures (for the second quarter of 2009) is the number of magazines that have been shut down. These include Maverick, Men’s Health Living, Best Life, Your Child, Real Simple and Y Magazine. May they rest in peace and the journalists find new jobs though I know that’s not easy with everyone having cut back drastically on staff and freezing positions.
As you might expect, most magazines are down compared with the same period last year but it is particularly noticeable in the women’s general and home categories. I guess because they are rather… general. For example, Cosmo fell from 112 361 last year to 100 819 this year, Fairlady from 71 898 to 67 058 and True Love from 99 889 to 83 991.
Femina, however, bucked the trend and rose from 35 224 last year to 40 646 this year.
In the home category, Conde Nast House & Garden fell from 46 758 last year to 43 723 this year; House & Leisure from 41 323 to 38 529 and Elle Decor from 30 094 to 23 145.
Most magazines are bulking or giving away copies for free so even those that appear to gaining may not in fact be doing so.
It’s a tad depressing to go through all the losers as they really are across the board. Here and there though, there are a couple of bright spots:
Noseweek rose from 20 550 to 21 665 with no bulking or giveaway copies. Nice one, Martin!
Shape rose from 44 264 to 46 647 (with only 115 third-party bulk sales and no giveaways). They clearly get the content mix right.
Stuff rose from 8 547 to 14 581 with only 250 giveaways and no third-party bulk. This is excellent growth and well done to Toby!
Auto Trader went from 21 044 to 22 396 with no third-party bulk or giveaways. Possibly an indication of the economy and more people trading in cars rather than buying new.
Popularity: 15% [?]
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August 18th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Where can members of the public find this data. And what are the figures for Wine magazine and Avocado please.
August 18th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Hi Peter,
The Audit Bureau of Circulations (www.abc.org.za) collates and audits the figures and I would be interested to know if they would give them out to members of the public. Their phone number is: 011 551 9700. I’m sure they would as a member of the public may be a potential advertiser.
Wine magazine went from 14 531 in the 2nd quarter of 2008 to 11 833 in 2009. Avocado went from 29 571 in 2008 to 24 984 this year. Both have a few thousand copies going to thrid-party bulk and giveaway copies.
August 18th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Have you READ the magazines on the market – seriously – I try – but there really is NOTHING in them that justifies spending nearly R30 a time! I might buy a mag if there is an article in it that really appeals, or a freebie that I want. It’s just really expensive to keep on buying and not finding enough to interest in them.
Shape mag is really good though and I have subscribed – great editorial with image postive lifestyle and health content.
Now if they put in more gadgets it would be perfect