While I will publish the July – September newsagency sales benchmark results Monday, I note the following results for magazines:
- 85% of report an average decline in unit sales of 11.3%. The average decline in weeklies was 10.1%. The decline is not as bad outside the top selling titles.
These results are in line with the audit results as published at Mumbrella today.
I will have more to say on this on Monday once the report is completed.
The figures that surprised me were the low digital subscribers numbers at around 1% of physical sale.
It appears readers aren’t abandoning print for digital so much as just abandoning these titles full stop, undoubtedly for other sources. Who needs to pay for this content when the likes of the Daily Mail give it away free as clickbait?
Steve that is one take. The bigger picture for some brands is that they have other platforms through which readers engage and from which publishers make money.
The numbers in the article are horrendous. No industry can withstand sales declines of this magnitude, cost cutting will not help in these circumstances. Exit plans will be in place, like Brexit, only the timing and terms are unknown. 2017 will be end of road for much of magazine sector.
If we still had the same number of titles as we had before NDC closed, I wonder if this would be different.
The lack of range could account for some of the lost sales.
More data required
Subaru it is an interesting topic to explore. The data I see indicates a range of reasons, varying by location. Range is certainly a factor in some stores. I might share some of the insights in a future post.
Hi Mark
do you think much can be due to the drop off in adult coloring in books i think they were massive last year
We did very well out of colouring books throughout 2015, until that is, the magazine companies killed the sector with their arrival at the end of the year. At one stage we were receiving so many new colouring publications we just returned all without even displaying.
Sharon I don’t think the decline has anything to do with adult colouring. You only have to look at individual title performance to see the challenge.
Subaru #4, I’m in the same boat. Car and 4WD section is near empty. Having to waterfall titles and try to fill it up. I have contacted Express Publications and they were going to email me their portfolio so I could order mags of Gotch, needless to say I’m still waiting.
you only have to follow the instagram pages and facebook pages of the weekly mags to see the growing discontent amongst their readers. The diehard regular magazine customer is tired of the crap they print and won’t spend money on buying garbage. We hear it daily from the customer and surely they can read it on their social media pages. Improve the contect, quality and credibility of what they print and they MIGHT win back some customers. Damage is done though in my opinion.