Who said print was dead? Most magazine publishers will be jumping for joy with the latest Roy Morgan readership figures, particularly NewsLifeMedia, with GQ surging 50.7%. Other publishers saw stand out performances from Hyper, Game Informer, Feast and Men's Fitness.
In a stark contrast to the circulation figures, magazine readership for the year to March 2013 was largely positive for the industry, with 67 titles recording an increases compared to 63 seeing declines. The magazine reading population grew 2.4% in the year to March to 12.4 million readers, up from 12.1 million.
Roy Morgan readership figures for the year to March 2013.
Magazine Publishers Australia executive director Robin Parkes said: “Readership of magazines is still remarkably strong, which shows the high levels of consumer interest. Australian consumers still love their magazines with 93% of adults reading magazines and 13.5 million magazines sold in Australia every month.
“Our recent social media initiative earlier this month showed the level of reach and engagement that magazines have, reaching an audience of almost five million in just one day. Among the social media commentary, many readers expressed their love for printed magazines.”
The strongest result was from Next Media's Hyper, which skyrocketed 84.1% year on year, while GQ was next on the list. Other star performers were Fresh Water Fishing Australia, up 46.2%; Virgin Australia Voyeur, increasing 44.7%; and Soap World, up 39.2%.
Other titles in the top 20 increases were Odysseus Publishing's Men's Fitness, Fairfax's BRW, and Bauer's Recipes+.
The strongest category was Fishing, which surged 16.5% overall, bolstered by the likes of Fresh Water Fishing Australia and Fishing World (owned by AdNews publisher Yaffa), which jumped 5.7%.
Computing, Games and Info Tech was once again a starring category, jumping 10% in total, led by Hyper's massive 84.1% jump. This category is one of the most consistent performers, although Bauer's TechLife did experience a 40.6% drop in readership.
Men's Lifestyle jumped 2.6%, led by GQ's impressive performance, while the Home & Garden category increased 4.5% and Women's Fashion jumped 1.3%.
Positive figures were also recorded by the Motorcycle category; as well as Music & Movies; Health & Family; and Business, Financial & Airline.
The magazine with the highest number of readers was Bauer's Woman's Day, with 1.89 million readers, overtaking Bauer's Women's Weekly which had 1.87 million. While Women's Weekly remains one of the strongest magazines in terms of overall readership, it was actually one of the weakest performers in terms of percentage decline, dropping 20.2%.
Pacific Magazine's Better Homes and Gardens came in with 1.84 million readers, while Pacific Magazine's New Idea had 1.36 million.
Parkes said: “We are really encouraged by the resurgence of interest in weekly women’s magazines, which are traditionally the key indicator of the magazine industry’s health.
“The launch of new personalities by popular TV shows has helped the weeklies attract readers. In addition, readers are continuing to follow their niche interests, so we’ll see fragmentation continue with broad interests stabilising and niche areas growing.”
Of course, the story wasn't all positive. A number of titles clearly felt the pain in the year the March 2013. Royal Auto (Vic) fell 40.7% while TechLife dropped 40.6%.
Bauer's Madison, Shop Til You Drop, Cleo and Cosmopolitan were all in the top 20 declining titles, as were NewsLifeMedia's Vogue Living and Super Food Ideas.
The largest category decline was experienced by TV, falling 23.9%; then Men's, dropping 18.2%; followed by Women's Youth down 5.4%. Food & Entertainment and Women's Lifestyle also dropped.
Meanwhile, Roy Morgan's new 'masthead readership' numbers, which combine print and online figures (and now include app figures for the first time) were not overly impressive. While year on year comparisons cannot be made yet, a comparison of March figures with June figures showed a decline for the majority of the titles.
However, some strong results were seen by Woman's Day, New Idea, Men's Health and The Monthly.
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