Media auditing service, the Audit Bureau of Circulations, has unveiled its data from October to December 2014, with magazines experiencing a mixed bag of results.
Publications that focused on home and lifestyle subject matter fared the best, with Women’s Fitness, Australian Property Investor, Australian Home Beautiful, Real Living, Diabetic Living, Grand Designs Australia, Russh, Caravan World, Frankie, Belle, Australian Handyman, Super Food Ideas and Feast recording a sales growth between 4 and 21 per cent. Family Circle magazine jumped 26.4 per cent.
In regards to monthly magazines, Marie Claire magazine only dropped by 1.7 per cent. The news wasn’t so positive for CLEO and Cosmopolitan, which declined by 17 per cent and 14 per cent respectively. In addition, Girlfriend sales fell 23.3%, and Dolly by 22.3%.
As for weekly magazines, New Idea recorded a 3.5 per cent decline in total, OK! Magazine fell 3.7 per cent, and Woman’s Day posted a 5.7 per cent decrease. NW faced a 15 per cent fall in sales, with Pacific Magazine’s Famous experiencing a similar decline, down 14.5 per cent since last year. Of all Bauer Media publications, Zoo Weekly performed the worst - its circulation fell 36.3 per cent in the past year.
Media analyst Steve Allen told mUmBRELLA the results are nothing to panic about, but rather convey a long-term shift in trends. “Weekly magazines are not sliding any worse than they have been. They’re still losing circulation but it’s not as severe as it was a year or two years ago.”
Bauer Media director of sales Tony Kendall says that despite a decrease in circulation, publications remain a powerful outlet for advertisers. In a statement, he said: “Magazines continue to be the medium most loved by Australian women. When you combine the monthly reach of Woman’s Day – 2.92 million women – with its print and digital audience, and more than 500,000 Facebook likes, there is no better medium for advertisers.”
