ABC SPECIAL EDITION, brought to you by MediaCom Press Unit
It’s been a busy few months in the magazine market with the purchase of Emap by Bauer and the emergence of another free magazine on the streets.
With the latest batch of circulation figures available, we bring you a taste of what has been happening in the consumer magazine marketplace.
Are Celebs losing their sparkle?
The sector that has boosted the women’s weeklies figures audit after audit did not deliver as spectacular performance as usual. Downward figures from Heat, Closer and Now were countered by stronger showings from OK!, Hello and Star leaving the market up marginally year on year. The days of big circulations courtesy of Big Brother could finally be over.
The Editor is King
Well certainly in the case of Esquire. Since new editor Jeremy Langmead took to the helm the title has managed to turn its fortunes around in the Men’s market which has seen other titles flounder. He certainly seems to be doing something right, an increase of 19% period on period proving that it is what is in the magazine, as opposed to what is free with the issue that matters to this particular audience.
Digging deeper
In the Women’s Monthly market we see Glamour at the top of the table yet again, in what has been a reasonably good performance for a market which has been hit in recent periods by the charge of the weeklies. The title has pulled all the marketing stops out to maintain its lead in a hugely competitive sector, and should be commended as such. This example underlines the importance of keeping a close eye on not just the headline figures, but how they are achieved, be it through price cuts or sampling opportunities.
Rest assured, we in your press department have been keeping a close eye on what has been going on to ensure we know the real value behind the figures that our released.
For your own copy of insights and stats into these and the rest of the press marketplace, sector by sector please email Lucy Brunning.
