17

Feb

ABCs – how magazines are performing as digital editions

While publishers talk about commitment to long-term editorial plans for their brands, the latest ABCs for consumer magazines include a number of new digital editions reporting for the first time which is an interesting and timely development.

 

Looking at how these magazines perform and digging into the influence of these household brands across more platforms than just print is of fundamental importance for all communications professionals looking to engage with target audience groups.

 

According to Brandrepublic.com, In total, 72 magazine brands have reported average circulation figures for their digital editions, more than quadrupling from the last reporting period, when just 16 reported.

 

ABC rules mean that digital edition of a magazine – downloaded to tablets or smartphones through Apple’s app store and the Zinio platform – must have less than 5% editorial difference to the printed edition of the magazine.

 

This development is worth tracking and following how the influence of these brands evolves in line with the growth in numbers of UK consumers using tablets and smart-phones.

459 days ago Short URL Comments

Uncategorized

/////

17

Feb

ABCS – Consumers spend £2.5bn on magazines each year

Following yesterday’s round of magazine ABCs, I think it’s worth taking a look at the size and scale of the consumer magazine market.

According to figures from the PPA, over recent years, the UK’s annual print distribution has remained relatively stable at around the 1.25bn mark – or around 20 magazines per person.

This figure only refers to the basket of titles that are audited by ABC, and it is achieved in the context of a particularly challenging economic environment.

It places the UK as the second most magazine-friendly country among the G8 nations, a grouping of countries which collectively makes up an estimated 53% of nominal global GDP.  In commercial terms, it equates to an estimated annual spend on consumer magazines in the UK of £2.5bn or, to put it another way, £40 per person.

To find out more about how magazines can be used as part of a campaign, I recommend taking a look at the PPA’s recent Magnify study.

459 days ago Short URL Comments

Uncategorized

/////

06

Sep

A long hard look at the ABCs

Picking through the resulting coverage of last month’s magazine ABCs has been published, there are some interesting things to observe.

A number of key titles are being reported as dropping in numbers with a variety of % drops. I’m not going to list them as it’s pointless repeating the bad news which is being acknowledge by publishers as the result of tough market conditions.

That said, 46.2 million people read a print magazine in the UK during the first six months of 2011. That’s a big number and one worth bearing in mind when planning PR campaigns. Print magazines provide a valuable channel to audiences and by their very nature allow you to pick and choose audience groups to target. This audience choose their print titles through a mix of newsstand purchases and subscriptions to titles.

Print magazines are also steadily building out their digital footprint, reinforcing their positions as editor brands for recommendations, guidance and expertise in the digital world. These figures are generally being portrayed as multi-platform reach but, and this is a big BUT, the figures are not linked to ABCs results. So while print ABCs are critiqued, there appears to be a lack of information out there about the digital reach the print titles are offering. Currently publishers are having to provide these separately and it’s my view the lack of information about this during ABCs is creating a very one-sided view of how print magazines are performing.

On that basis, best advice is to make sure you fully dig into the extended reach of a print magazine brand you are targeting and think about ways in which your PR activity can work across the multi-platform offering that the journalists, editors and publishers are developing. It is likely that the right PR content will reach your target audience on multiple occasions, be that through the print title, the Twitter feed they follow, the Facebook page or group they are a member of, the radio extension they are listening, the website they visit daily, the email newsletter they subscribe to… the list goes on.

623 days ago Short URL Comments

Advertising/Content/Digital/Magazines

////

17

Feb

The ups and downs of ABCs

The latest ABCs for magazines have been released today and as always it’s fascinating to see what people are buying and reading. These figures are a valuable guide when planning a PR campaign to understand how magazines are performing and engaging with audiences.

Check out here for a quick snapshot of the top 100 titles:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/table/2011/feb/17/magazine-abcs

Successful publishers are pointing towards subscriptions as a powerful indicator of reader engagement which is a useful point to consider.

While the two biggest titles for men are both free – Sport and Shortlist.

Magazines that are able to capitalise on major popular culture moments seem to be in a strong position such as Egmont’s Toy Story magazine which came out around the release of Toy Story 3 last summer or Empire that consistently aligns with new films.

The quality current affairs magazines continue to rise which is perhaps a reflection of the continuing high levels of interest in the state of the economy in the UK and globally.

As digital continues to make an impact on the media landscape, it also highlights some interesting trends.

Where digital can provide the content in a 24/7 format, magazines are having to fight hard to compete, for example in the men’s weekly magazine sector. Many commentators are speculating that it is close to the end as a sector.

Meanwhile, where digital hasn’t yet provided a mass-market solution, the magazines are doing well, the TV listings title being a case in point (which has also benefited from a recent closure in the sector).

And this is an interesting summary of publishers developing an interest in delivering digital magazines to devices like the iPad.

http://www.brandrepublic.com/news/1055610/magazine-abcs-magazine-brands-launched-ipad-apps/

Finally, if anyone can point me to an easy-to-use online TV listings site that doesn’t require multiple clicks, rather than ringing a page or two with a pen, please let me know!

824 days ago Short URL Comments

Digital/Magazines

//////

12

Aug

Here Come The ABCs

Today’s ABC results is driving debate about the differing levels of performance of magazines in the UK.

A useful summary link to the top 100 titles is here:

http://www.brandrepublic.com/news/1021986/magazine-abcs-top-100-magazines-glance/

And the following is some useful analysis and perspective on the children’s market from Sam Vernon, Egmont’s Creative Solutions Group Sales Manager – magazines & online.

For pre-teen girls the industry is waiting to see what the next big craze will be giving publishers the opportunity to capitalise on that craze as High School Musical and Hannah Montana are seeing a decrease in their popularity.

While there is a lull in must-have brands for pre-teen girls, lifestyle titles are benefiting from pre-teen girl readership as shown by Egmont’s Go Girl and BBC’s Girl Talk increasing in circulation.

Children’s publishers have also been able to capitalise on the fast changing trends and interest of children by producing one off specials for popular brands, such as Egmont’s All About… and Latest series which see them focus on a ‘brand of the moment’ and answer consumer needs by capturing the mood of the moment. Other publishers are following suit with one-off specials as a growing revenue stream.

The children’s market as a whole saw a far smaller decrease in sales this period than last year, showing the market is in recovery.

There has also been less closures in the children’s market in this period giving confidence to the market that consumers are growing their spend for children’s magazines.

1013 days ago Short URL Comments

Uncategorized

//////

13

Aug

Here Come The August ABCs

Amidst the news of dropping circulations for many sectors, it’s clear there are some winners.  The early leaders including fitness titles (Men’s Health and Men’s Fitness) faring well, the children’s sector which seems to prove that parents will still spend on their kids even in a recession (Egmont’s Ben 10, for example,  has had an excellent performance) and serious news and business titles such as The Week and The Economist.

What’s also coming through is the moves publishers are making to evolve in these internet times, for example, Dennis Publishing’s continued commitment to driving subscriptions as a means of insulating against tough market conditions.

But what I find most intriguing is which titles have circulations sadly falling beyond the point of no return with the dilemma for owners of whether the brand closes entirely or lives on in digital form.  The dynamics of the magazine market remain as fascinating as ever.

1377 days ago Short URL Comments

Uncategorized

//////

Blog at WordPress.com.
Theme: Esquire by Matthew Buchanan.

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.