Last week saw the release of January-June 2012 ABC’s for the consumer magazine market.
It has been an underwhelming result with many circulation declines reported across the market, we are interested to see how this translates into the next audit performance.
Women’s lifestyle
In terms of sectors, Women’s Lifestyle is not holding up as well as it did in the second half of last year, with the majority of titles recording declines – just 8 titles in the ABC analysis have seen a YoY circulation uplift. On a whole this sector was down -3.4% PoP and -5.1% YoY. Following this, Stylist (Free), Easy Living and Image (Paid for) were the only titles to see a positive YoY and PoP change.
Free title John Lewis Edition remains ahead of Condé Nast’s Glamour (the top paid for title) at the top of the Women’s Lifestyle sector, despite the handbag-sized magazine clawing back a small 0.8% PoP increase. However, over the year, Glamour is down -11.3% (almost 60,000 copies).
Hearst Magazines Good Housekeeping remains in fourth place after a -5.2% YoY and -8.8% PoP drop in sales.
Free magazine Stylist has climbed into the top three after posting positive figures (1.1% YoY increase) and Easy Living also posted a standout 3.8% YoY increase, helping to buck the overall Women’s weeklies
Women’s weeklies
The challenging economic climate is still having a huge impact on the Women’s Weekly sector, which is down -11.1% on last year (and -6.9% PoP), however circulations are still strong for this market which sees over 6m copies sold each week.
Only one title in the ABC analysis posted an increase - The Lady, up 0.1% PoP. All of the other Women’s Weekly magazines disappointingly recorded YoY declines.
Northern & Shell titles OK! and Star suffered the most substantial declines - down by more than 117,000 copies each over the year!
Men’s lifestyle
As a whole the Men’s Lifestyle sector is down -3.3% PoP but YoY it remains fairly steady at -1.0% thanks to the free titles Shortlist and Sport which continue to dominate the sector. Shortlist enjoyed a small 1.0% YoY and 0.5% PoP uplift, while Sport increased its distribution by 0.3% during the six-month period but is down -0.2% YoY.
GQ and Wired are also enjoying positive results - up 1.6% and 4% YoY respectively.
Elsewhere it was a different story with both Men’s Health and FHM recording yearly and six-monthly declines. FHM took one of the biggest hits, seeing them down -20.4% YoY and -12.0% PoP.
IPC Media’s weekly magazine Nuts also saw a substantial drop (-20.9& YoY), as did Healthy for Men (-21.0% YoY) and Bauer Consumer Media’s Zoo (-14.7% YoY).
Home Interest
The Home Interest market posted a mixed set of results, the overall market was down 0.1% on last year and 0.4% on the second half of last year. The sector has posted losses but it has still been one of the more successful sectors this abc, although this may be partially due to the huge success of Style at Home.
A number of titles posted circulation increases, including Country Homes and Interiors, Living Etc, Elle Decoration, Good homes and Style at Home, showing the biggest increase by far with 11% PoP and 52% YoY. However, a number of titles in the market suffered dramatic circulation losses, including market leaders Ideal Home and Country Living alongside House Beautiful, posting the biggest loss of 11% YoY.
Regardless of circulation losses Ideal Home and Country Living remain at the top of the market, this ABC has however highlighted the ongoing consumer shift towards more DIY focused titles such as Style at Home.
TV Listings
Only one title in the TV Listings market posted a YoY increase, Total TV Guide which was up 3.1%. This majority circulation decline led to the overall TV Listings market being down 5.4% YoY and 3.8% PoP, The TV Listings sector does however remain one of the largest markets circulating over 4.3 million copies per week in total.
We can see that the biggest casualty in this ABC period is the TV Times, losing 8.5% YoY and 9.9% PoP. The data does show a potential recovery for Soaplife, whilst still down 15.7% YoY it has posted a 3.2% increase PoP.
Market leaders TV Choice and What’s on TV have both struggled this period, losing a substantial 135,337 copies between them. However, TV Choice remains to be the highest circulating paid for title in the UK.
Finance, News and Affairs
The News and Affairs market proved to be the exception to the rule this abc, being the only market posting circulation increases across the board. The total market is up 5.4% YoY and 0.5% PoP. Private Eye posted a 9.6% increase YoY, becoming the market leader. The Week also posted positive results increasing it’s circulation by almost 8,000 copies.
The Business and Finance titles however had a set of mixed results, with Business Life performing most favourably, up 13.6% YoY and 6.6% PoP, and the investors chronicle becoming the biggest casualty with a 9.6% YoY decrease, in total the market was down 0.3% YoY.
MEC View
- The circulation declines shown in this ABC have demonstrated the huge effect that the recession is having upon our press industry.
- It seems that within the Women’s Weeklies market people are still buying multiple titles but buying less than they were previously resulting in massively declining circulations.
- We have seen some titles capitalise on the consumer behaviours that have arisen from the recession, as more budget conscious consumers look for more affordable home solutions Style at Home has seen great success.
- We can see that one of the worst performing sectors is the young men’s market, with the likes of FHM, Nuts and Zoo posting massive losses, which can be attributed in part to the mass digital migration taking place with this demographic.
- The TV Listings sector has also posted overall loses, again this could be related to the digital shifts in the UK and the growing popularity of EPG services.
- This ABC has shown that titles offering quality editorial to the older audience do still have a place, with The Week and Easy Living both posting dramatic increases.
- The digital migration can also be seen to have affected the figures posted as more and more people now go online for their news, updates and information.
- The next ABC period will show that the young men’s market continuing to decline, possibly bringing some closures in the near future. The past three years has seem FHM lose almost half (48%) of its circulation, how much longer can it continue to sustain these loses?
- The health market will continue to rise as consumers become more health conscious, the Olympics is likely to have had an impact as people are now more inspired to take up a more active lifestyle.
- The celebs market will continue to decline as people continue to be less interested in the exploits of Z lists celebs such as Jordan and instead have a greater curiosity about sports, finding sports personalities to be new role models.
- 2012’s Jubilee and Olympic events will have a positive impact on figures, particularly for the women’s weeklies magazines like OK.
