MediaCom View: Despite ever increasing demands on consumers leisure time and pockets, the latest ABC figures show magazines to be going strong as ever. Yes, some high profile sectors have seen dramatic falls in circulation, namely the mens marketplace and the teen titles, but these have largely been offset by improved perfomances for both individual titles and whole sectors. In total, the PPA has identified that consumer spend on magazines has risen by 1.6% over the past year, a figure somewhat accounted for by new launches into the marketplace.

Fashion mags are all the rage

MediaCom View: In a weekly market that showed a mix bag of results it was the two titles that focus on fashion that really shone through. Look, launched by IPC in January posted an impressive debut figure of 318,907, whilst Grazia saw a 25.6% increase year on year. Both propositions, the former more high street, the latter with an upmarket designer spin are reflecting women's desire for fast fashion.

It ain't what you say, it's the way that you say it

MediaCom View: Price promotions, marketing, cover mounts and subscription offers obviously all have a huge part to play in the rise and fall of a titles circulation, but what we really see when we look deeper into these numbers is the importance of the editorial. It is those titles that have really invested in and thought about their content and what their readers want to see week after week, or month after month, that are shining through. The titles that have gone off the rails circulation wise have been equally off track in terms of editorial in the past year, take NW as a case in point. Hopefully with a new editor at the helm Emap may be able to do something, but it may just be too little too late for this title.

For your own copy of insights and stats into the whole of the press marketplace, sector by sector, please email lucy.brunning@mediacom.com.

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