US magazine sales fell 10% in the sin months to June 30, 2012. Businessweek reports:
The Audit Bureau of Circulations said Tuesday that overall circulation, including subscriptions, was just about flat from a year earlier. But single-copy sales, which are more closely watched — because publishers make more money from them— continued to fall. Subscriptions are typically sold at a discount so publishers can increase their circulation and attract advertisers.
The industry group said that single-copy sales at newsstands and other retailers totaled 26.4 million in the first six months of 2012. That’s down from 29.1 million in the same period last year.
Check out the media decoder blog at The New York Times on this … fascinating.
Our magazine model is quite different here with over the counter sales accounting for a greater proportion of overall sales.
While we talk about digital and generational change having an impact on magazine sales, the products themselves have an impact. This is especially true in the mass market. For example, Weight Watchers in the US (325,000 monthly sales) lost 28% of sales. The question has to be – is this indicative of a problem with the product itself.
Publishers need to look at this for every title reporting sales decline. They have to ask whether they are putting out the best product possible.