Publisher hits out at bulk sales
Hello!’s publishing director, Sally Cartwright, has questioned whether the current rules on magazine bulk sales go far enough.
She says the latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations show that in some cases bulk sales as a percentage of a title’s total circulation are “alarmingly high”.
“The most important judgement of a magazine is how it sells on the bookstall. ABC has made a start by highlighting actively purchased copies, but I am beginning to question whether that goes far enough.
“Advertisers need to look very carefully at bulk sales and to consider the proportion of a magazine’s sales that they represent, because they are clearly different from individually priced copies.”
Using calculations that exclude multiple copy sponsored subscription sales, she points to total circulation figures in the women’s lifestyle sector, where 26 per cent of Condé Nast titles Vanity Fair and Tatler, and 28.9 per cent of National Magazines’ Harpers & Queen, are made up of bulks. NatMags’ Esquire magazine also recorded 16,011 bulk sales, accounting for 22.7 per cent of its 70,435 circulation.
Hello! relied on bulk sales of 23,706, which make up five per cent of a total circulation of 458,633. Rival OK! also uses bulks totalling 65,747, accounting for 14.4 per cent of the total circulation of 455,162.
– ABC issued incorrect total circulation figures for BBC Worldwide. The publisher has shown a year-on-year rise of 1.8 per cent.
– ABC has asked us to point out Marketing Week’s average net circulation was 39,508 for the period from July 1 1999 to June 30 2000. Total net circulation was 40,709 as reported.
