Magazine ABCs Top 10s by sector

Marketing Week looks at the biggest magazines in the latest ABC figures sector by sector.

magazines

Top 10 actively purchased magazines

Slimming World Magazine marked the biggest sales increase of the top 10 titles in the six months to June as consumers looked for tips to trim down their shape in time for the summer holidays.

The slimming title’s 4.3 per cent sales rise helped push it one step up the rankings in the period, overtaking Good Housekeeping magazine.

Conde Nast Glamour’s 0.2 per cent period on period increase in the number of active purchases helped boost the title two places up the rankings to seventh.

ABC Top 10 actively purchased magazines to June end 2012

Top 10 actively purchased magazines

Women’s Lifestyle

The entire women’s lifestyle magazine sector was down 5.1 per cent year on year.

Conde Nast’s Glamour was one of the few major titles in the sector to mark a marginal period on period uplift in the six months to June, although the title is down 11.3 per cent year on year. Free magazine Stylist also increased its distribution.

Hearst Magazines UK’s Good Housekeeping suffered one of the biggest declines in the period, down 8.8 per cent.

ABC total average net circulation/distribution to June end 2012:

Women’s Lifestyle

Womens lifestyle top 10

 

Women’s Weeklies

The women’s weeklies sector was another segment to take a battering in recent months and it is also down 10.9 per cent year on year.

All of the titles in the top 10 marked declines both year on year and in the six monthly reporting period.

Northern & Shell’s Star and New magazines reported the biggest and second biggest circulation decreases respectively in the period.

ABC total average net circulation/distribution to June end 2012:

Women’s Weeklies

Womens Weeklies Top 10

TV Listings

The TV listings sector houses some of the UK’s biggest circulating magazines, but titles in the segment continue to suffer as users switch to using the internet or their electronic programming guides to find out what’s on the box.

The entire sector was down 5.4 per cent year on year, with the smaller titles such as IPC’s Soaplife and Hearst Magazines UK’s All About Soap marking the biggest yearly declines.

ABC total average net circulation/distribution to June end 2012:

TV Listings

Top 10 TV Listings

News and Current Affairs

News and current affairs was one of the few sectors to mark an overall circulation increase.

The biggest segments in the sector are split into “business and finance” and “domestic”, but we have amalgamated the two below.

Cedar Communications’ Business Life marked the biggest six monthly and year on year circulation increases.

ABC total average net circulation/distribution to June end 2012:

News and Current Affairs

News and Current Affairs Top 10

Men’s Lifestyle

Predictably men’s freesheets, such as Shortlist and Sport dominate the men’s lifestyle sector.

Men’s interest magazines such as FHM and Nuts marked another period of dramatic circulation decline as readers continue to go online for their kicks.

Sports and fitness titles fared better and it will be interesting to see if they mark an upwards trajectory in the next ABC reporting period as a result of the Olympic effect.

ABC total average net circulation/distribution to June end 2012:

Men’s Lifestyle

Mens Lifestyle top 10

Rock Music

As rock music gradually fades away from the pop charts, magazines about the genre continue to lose readers.

Free magazine The Fly is now the biggest title in the sector, managing to increase its circulation both period on period and year on year against a backdrop of decline.

ABC total average net circulation/distribution to June end 2012:

Rock Music

Rock Music Top 10

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