Looking at magazine sales data for the last twelve weeks to July 15 for my newsagency compared to the same period last year, the gulf between successful categories and failig categories has widened compared to my last look three months ago. Here is unit sales growth or decline by major category:
Buying and Selling – down 19%
Computers – down 34%
Motoring – down 16%
Music – down 14%
Women’s Weeklies – up 26%
Women’s Interests – up 22%
Most others were up or down less than 10%.
These are extraordinary numbers. The falls are greater than I saw in the first three months of this year. Look at the Women’s titles. These are the titles where we compete with five other outlets in my centre yet we are achieving five and six times the industry average growth. That this extraordinary growth is not reflected in the other categories has me stumped. Our offering is excellent, the titles well displayed and our pitch is backed by a valuable loyalty (discount) program.
I wonder if this data reflects the end of the newsagent magazine range as we know it in Australia or is my store an aberration. I see enough data from other newsagencies to suggest this is not the case. The gap between successful categories and the others is a shock and everyone involved in the newsagent channel ought to take note.
Every newsagency is a reflection of the community it serves and while I would expect some variation in category performance, there is no doubt some magazine categories are in rapid steep decline.