There’s nothing like a bit of corporate combat to kick off the year. If, like many in South Africa, you were still on holiday last week you might have missed this story on Fin24: veteran media writer Tony Koenderman on the Audit Bureau of Circulation relaxing its rules so that anything sold for less than 50% of its cover price can be counted as ABC-endorsed copy sales.

The juicy bit is that it was Avusa that drove the change, arguing that the rule was anti-competitive. So it appears that Avusa, the owner of the Sunday Times, the Sowetan and Sunday World, has kicked down a key pillar of the strategy of its rival, the Naspers-owned Media24, which has been pushing for some time now that “core circulation” be the standard.

Core circulation is copy sales sans third-party bulk (selling copies of your publication to a third party for them to give away – or not) and what is called “print media in education” sales or PMIE. The latter means bulk deals that go to disadvantaged schools that newspapers can count as circulation and simultaneously trumpet as helping to improve literacy.

As I wrote in a Moneyweb column last year, Media24 stole the march in July on everyone else in the newspaper industry and said that its advertising division would take out third-party bulk and PMIE sales from the circulation figures of its Sunday papers so that advertisers could focus on core circulation. The five papers are the Sunday Sun, City Press, Ilanga Langesonto, Rapport and Sondag.

In fact, the ABC numbers had started offering a breakdown of sales figures that separated out the third-party bulk and PMIE since the beginning of 2009. Media24, it seemed, had hit on a wily strategy as its arch rival on a Sunday, Avusa’s Sunday Times, has the most to lose because its high percentage of bulking – especially with City Press now improving under Ferial Haffajee. City Press is definitely a lot tighter and harder under Haffajee, previously the editor of the Mail & Guardian.

There are many critics of the ABC’s recent move, saying that it creates the opportunity for abuse and to confuse – just as bulking does. It could be used to mask declining circulation, they say, and that it will dilute what advertisers really care about: demographics… TO READ THE FULL COLUMN, GO TO MONEYWEB HERE.

Popularity: 12% [?]

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% [?]

Here is another interactive graph, this time a pie chart for you to have a look at how weekend newspapers in South Africa shape up against each other in terms of circulation. Give it a few moments to download – it’s worth the brief wait.

Popularity: 7% [?]