The latest Audit Bureau of Circulation data for magazine sales in the three months to December 2007 is not good news for top selling titles:Woman’s Day: -7.6%; New Idea: -2.0%; NW: -10.5%; OK!: +24.9%; TV Week: -12.2%; Take 5: -2.6%; That’s Life: -1.4%.
This supports the November / December benchmark data I have seen from 50 newsagents I benchmarked. The question from many back then was am I alone is experiencing this? The Audit results show the answer is no.
The sales slump in weekly titles is significant and ought to act as a call to arms by newsagents to work harder on driving sales.
There is some good news (but not much) in the Audit results: Better Homes and Gardens: +4.5%; Donna Hay: +13.5%; Men’s Health: 10.2%; Country Home Ideas: 14.1%.
One title of interest to me was Good Health & Medicine from ACP. Sales are down 4.3%. Given the rationing of this title and late promotion (see earlier post), I wonder if titles like this miss growth because of supply chain related issues and or because the publisher is tight on print run.
Part of the challenge with magazines is that they have become a commodity in recent years – more types of retailers carry them today than when newsagents were the specialists. If someone gets the magazine they want from a convenience store or petrol outlet, they are not presented with the up-sell opportunities one sees in a newsagency. Publishers, in chasing other outlets, may have done themselves a disservice by facilitating fewer people visiting newsagencies. I’d like to see effort put into rebuilding newsagencies as the go to magazine specialists – on economically viable terms.