The Audit Bureau of Circulation’s latest figures are out for this quarter, with the results continuing the trend of print decline. Mumbrella comments that the number of print weekly magazines sold within the recorded period dropped 12.75 per cent overall, or 168,626 copies specifically.
Amid a sea of decreasing figures, Harper’s BAZAAR was the stand-out publication, with the glossy recording a circulation growth of 0.8 per cent – selling on average an extra 422 copies per month in comparison to last year. That’s 52,239 copies last year to 52,661 today.
As for the remaining titles, OK! experienced the greatest change with a recorded decline of 21.5 per cent in sales from March to June 2015, to the same time this year. That’s a drop in sales from 61,401 per week to 48,181.
Competitor Who fell 18.5 per cent – with the title posting a March to June circulation of 82,985, down from 101,845 in the same period last year. NW found similar decline, with its sales dropping 18.7 per cent year-on-year, from 65,014 to 52,833. New Idea posted a decline of 14.4 per cent – once selling 258,407 it now averages 221,176. Last year Cosmopolitan sold an average of 77,181 copies a month and has now dropped to 43,299. DOLLY experienced a similar decrease – dropping 17.3 per cent in circulation from 37,541 to 31,043 year-on-year.
Faring better is The Australian Women’s Weekly – while this is the first time the mag has seen its circulation drop below 400,000, it recorded a 9.9 per cent decline year-on-year. That’s 375,036 per month from 416,117. ELLE Australia was similar with a 7.9 per cent decline from 60,139 to 55,398 per month. marie claire dropped 9.9 per cent, That’s Life dropped 9.3 per cent, and Frankie 9.8 per cent. Yours recorded the lowest decrease at just 5.1 per cent.
Despite the majority decline, Bauer Media CEO Nick Chan is not interested in turning magazines to digital-only just yet. He says: “Not at this stage. They are down, there’s no avoiding the facts. For us, they’re still profitable and while they are, there’s no reason to consider a digital-only future.”
