Weekly magazine sales have fallen in the latest set of Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) results in the three months to September.
Several ACP Magazines showed a dramatic drop in circulation, particularly in the men's category. Picture was down 16.38% to 47,296 copies, while Zoo Weekly fell 24.9% to 73,018 copies. In the past six months, Zoo Weekly dropped more than 19,000 copies.
Click here for the full ABC magazine circulation results.
Click here for the full Roy Morgan Research readership figures.
Roy Morgan readership results reflected a similar trend with Picture down 15.8% and Zoo Weekly decreasing 14%. The mass women's publication NW fell 15.43%, however in a rare bright spot Grazia posted a 0.42% increase to 55,259 copies.
The results for ACP are interesting considering the recent news that Nine Entertainment Co. had to write down the value of ACP, warning that it may have to sell assets due to the strain of a $3.6 billion debt.
Meanwhile, Pacific Magazines posted slight declines in circulation across its weeklies. Famous fell 1.36% to 88,015, New Idea lost 3.53% to 305,037.
Pacific Magazine's CEO Nick Chan said: “It's a tough retail market and we haven't been as aggressive with our cover mounts. We're literally letting the products speak for themselves and that can swing things one to two per cent.
Who magazine was one of the two weekly magazines that had an increase, albeit slightly, of 1.58% to 132,163. Chan attributed this to its “strong brand, consistent offering and quality editorial product”.
“We will continue to focus on key magazines. Our circulation, in light of what's happened in retail trade is pretty solid. We're looking forward to a healthy Christmas, a non-disaster January. We're putting bigger effort into all magazines, weekly and monthly in terms of surprising consumers and being more daring with the stories we cover and how we cover them."
Commenting on the dramatic declines at ACP, particularly in relation to men's magazines, Chan said: “For that channel, given the petrol prices over the past year and the aggressiveness of supermarkets, less readers are buying at petrol and convenience stores, which has an impact on the product.”
When asked about why Pacific Magazine's had suffered declining readership results, Chan said: “At the end of the day I don't know. In the early days when we were young enough, we would whinge and carry on to Gary Morgan, but now we just take the call.”
An interesting trend amongst the weekly magazines was the rise of gaming titles. Readership for Game Informer grew by an impressive 57.9% at 120,000, Official Xbox 360 increased by 30.4% at 163,000 and PlayStation was up a massive 58.8% to 162,000.
The food revival of the past few years took a hit in the readership results. News Magazine's MasterChef Magazine lost 42.1% to 503,000, Healthy Food Guide published by Healthy Life Media fell 17.1% to 141,000 and ACP's Australian Good Food decreased 13.3% to 281,000.
Throughout the media industry, comments about the death of print are looming large, sparking industry spokespeople to refute the claims and hail the authenticity of print.
Fusion Strategy managing director Steve Allen said yesterday at the 2011 Magazine Week conference: “The deep and rich relationship magazines have with people is important. Magazines can build brand recognition and trust rapidly and in a fast growing internet age, this is a great strength.
“Magazines have to fight for a place in the hearts and minds of advertisers and simply have to up the ante.”
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