Last Friday, we carried a number of publisher statements. Statements from Grand Designs magazine, Gurgle magazine, Haymarket Consumer Media, How It Works magazine and Redan Publishing can be found below:
Grand Designs Magazine
Strong ABC Performance July-December 2012
Grand Designs magazine recorded another strong combined print/digital ABC performance of 33,701, representing a 9.3% year-on-year increase. This represents one of the highest year-on-year increases across the entire home-interest sector, and the magazine’s third consecutive year-on-year ABC increase, and its highest ABC for nearly five years.
The magazine outperformed the entire home-interest market by an impressive 11% with its print/digital sales, with paid subscription achieving 13,000 per issue. Grand Designs was one of the first home-interest magazines to successfully launch a digital version in late 2011, with current digital sales standing at 2,435 per issue.
The impressive performance is attributable to effective subscription marketing activity and continued digital sales growth.
Lisa Allen, Editor, commented: “The homes-magazine market is a competitive one, but the Grand Designs brand is very appealing to readers, and I am committed to continue to provide our readers with a unique mix of project based and interior design content. We are working hard to make sure that we deliver inspiring content in every issue.”
Gurgle Magazine
Gurgle Magazine outperforms the parenting magazine sector
Gurgle is now the top selling parenting magazine on the newsstand, taking over the number one position from Mother & Baby with an average newsstand sale of 21,857 per issue.
Gurgle has continued to develop its retail footprint across the UK and remains the only parenting magazine to be exclusively stocked in all Mothercare and Early Learning Centre stores.
Scarlett Brady, Gurgle Editor comments: “Gurgle has struck a chord with a new generation of mums: modern women who have no intention of giving up everything they've ever worked for just because they've had a baby. Our mums know the biggest secret out there - that the best part of their lives has just begun - and our mission is to inspire them to embrace that full throttle and make the most of every fascinating moment. We're all about sharing brilliant conversations from new parenting trends, smart solutions and humorous anecdotes to irresistible shopping and stylish voyeurism. I'd say our ABC results continue to prove that's an irresistible combination”.
Haymarket Consumer Media
Haymarket Consumer Media has released its magazine circulation results for the January – December 2012 period with its titles FourFourTwo, Stuff, F1 Racing and Classic & Sports Car all retaining their position as market leaders.
F1 Racing’s circulation figures were up by 0.2% year on year, with a circulation of 48,473. This increase in sales reinforces F1 Racing’s position as the market leader capturing over a third of the motorsport category sales.
Gramophone, Haymarket Consumer Media’s classical music title recorded a remarkable sales increase of 4.5%, bringing its total print circulation up to 27,466. This notable increase in sales figures is testament to Gramophone’s ongoing investment in highly specialist, must-read content.
Haymarket Consumer Media’s flagship gadget title Stuff has retained its position as the market’s best selling gadget magazine. Despite a fall in sales of 3.5% period on period, Stuff’s total circulation of 73,441 maintains the huge gap between its sales figures and those of its nearest competitors - T3 and Wired.
What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision recorded a circulation of 34,330 between January and December 2012, a 14.2% fall since the last year’s audit.
FourFourTwo’s circulation figures fell by 12.3% year on year to 84,365, but the brand remains the leading football title outperforming not only its direct competitors but also a selection of mainstream men’s lifestyle magazines.
In Haymarket’s motoring titles, What Car? recorded a small decline (3%) period on period, with a total circulation of 70,218.
Autocar also recorded a small period-on-period decrease (0.7%) in circulation since the last ABC audit in August last year, with a monthly sales figure of 40,168.
Classic & Sports Car, with a total circulation of 70,213 (-2.7% YoY), has maintained its position as the market leading title in the classic car sector, strongly outperforming its closest competition.
Autosport reported a decline in sales of 8.9% to a circulation of 24,438, whilst Motorsport News reported a circulation figure of 10,866 (-10.7% YoY).
Practical Motorhome held steady at 14,128, with Practical Caravan recording a circulation figure of 30,011 during the January-December 2012 period - a decline of 9.8% year on year.
In total Haymarket Consumer Media’s performance was down by 7.3% year on year, with titles audited bi-annually averaging a performance of -5.8% period on period.
Kevin Costello, Chief Executive, Haymarket Media Group: “In a declining print market it is our main objective to improve on or maintain our position relative to our competition. These results show that we have achieved that aim, with many of our titles retaining their position as market leader. They’ve done that by creating high value, engaging products that remain relevant to their target audiences. On top of that, our brands are experiencing ongoing growth of their online and digital audiences and revenues.”
Martyn Jones, Publishing Director, Stuff and FourFourTwo: “We are delighted to have consolidated our position as the world's biggest gadget magazine and market leadership versus T3. Our tablet edition has shown impressive growth since launch, whilst visits to Stuff.TV are up 129% year on year. Stuff's success demonstrates that investing in quality pays off and in uncertain times readers will accept nothing less.”
“The Euro's, World Cup and start of the domestic football season has always had an impact on circulation. Considering the unprecedented Olympic effect and a low key Euro 2012, we are delighted with magazine's performance, success of FourFourTwo.com and the multi award winning Stats Zone App. We can confidently look forward to an exciting 18 months and Brazil 2014.”
Andrew Golby, Publishing Director, What Car?: “With 99.8% of What Car?’s circulation being actively purchased, our ABC figure is a true reflection of the What Car? readership.
“To remain monthly copy sales above 70,000 is a tribute to the quality of our product, which remains the anchor point for many car buyers who are looking for advice they can trust.”
“Elsewhere in 2012 we have enjoyed our fastest growth rate online for some years. What Car? now comfortably exceeds 3 million visits every month to its desktop, mobile and tablet websites.”
Alastair Lewis, Publisher, Autocar: “We are delighted with the strong newsstand sales performance for Autocar, as we enjoy one of the fastest periods of growth in our long history.”
“These results have seen us maintain our position ahead of Auto Express on the weekly newsstand and record a creditable 0.7% decline PoP and a market-beating 6.6% decline YoY – underpinning the success of the excellent redesign the magazine underwent in the first half of 2012.”
“Added to this print strength our new website, which launched in June 2012, has doubled our online audience in the space of just six months, with 1.8 million visitors now coming to the site every month and more than 12m page views consumed. With further international expansion, digital edition sales, subscriptions growth and further print and online developments to come in 2013, we are at a very exciting time in Autocar’s illustrious history.”
Rob Aherne, Group Publisher, Autosport and Motorsport News: “Despite the challenging market conditions, it is a tribute to the quality and relevance of Autosport’s coverage that between print, digital editions and online subscriptions, our paid audience actually grew year-on-year.”
“Motorsport News also fought back by launching in digital form, and produced its biggest weekly issue for seven years during the summer.”
Ian Burrows, Commercial Director, F1 Racing: “F1 Racing is delighted to have bucked the trend of the UK consumer magazine market by recorded a year on year increase in monthly sales.”
“With declining sales witnessed almost universally across the motoring and motorsport categories, the editorial changes implemented on F1 Racing in 2012, under the leadership of Anthony Rowlinson, are delivering a must-read product for F1 fans.”
“Capturing over 40% of the motorsport category sales, F1 Racing has strengthened its position as market leader through delivering a magazine filled with beautifully presented exclusive content, sourced through unrivalled access and respect among the teams, drivers and personalities in Formula One.”
“With strong news trade and subscription performance in the UK and overseas across both our print and digital editions, we are forecasting a continuing upward trend for 2013.”
Tim Bulley, Publishing Director, Classic & Sports Car, Practical Caravan & Practical Motorhome: “Classic & Sports Car has posted yet another strong ABC result illustrating that it is not only the world's best selling classic car magazine but also that it is up there as one of the leading motoring titles. Through its audience in print and online the brand has never reached more discerning motoring enthusiasts.”
“Practical Caravan continues to lead on the UK newsstand by a caravanning country mile while Practical Motorhome's resilient year on year performance illustrates its strength with its loyal enthusiast readership.”
Kate Law, Publisher, Gramophone: “Being able to deliver 4.5% readership growth despite operating in the extremely tough trading conditions of the magazine and music industries is very gratifying and huge credit to everyone working on Gramophone.
“This result was achieved by delivering an editorial and subscription strategy that focussed on acquiring and retaining new subscribers while slowing the rate of decline in newsstand. If you include Gramophone’s digital magazine and app ABC readership, which grew by 182% last year, our overall 2012 circulation rose by an even more impressive 7.9% and it is this combined focus on print retention while developing paid digital content platforms that gives us great cause for optimism for future successes of the brand.”
Rachael Prasher, Publishing Director, What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision: “What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision remains the best-selling specialist home entertainment buying guide in the UK, outselling its rivals by 3:1. Despite challenging market conditions, we have seen explosive growth online, with traffic to whathifi.com up 36% during 2012 (Unique users: January 1st-December 31st 2012, GA).
A site redesign in September and the launch of the whathifi.com shop resulted in our best-ever traffic in December 2012, with unique users up 50% to 1.73 million and monthly page impressions up 24% to 12.5 million.
Our iPad digital edition also grew strongly in 2012, with subscriptions up by 50%, and proved particularly popular with overseas subscribers who can now download the magazine on the same day it goes on sale in the UK.
With major improvements to the magazine from the April 2013 issue, including a totally revamped Buying Guide and 16-page Ultimate Guide to Tablets, we’re confident the magazine, which is the only specialist hi-fi/AV magazine that still has a formal ABC figure, will continue to be the No.1 seller in its sector.”
How It Works magazine
Imagine Publishing’s exciting science magazine How It Works achieves highest-ever ABC across print and digital
Imagine Publishing is proud to announce that How It Works magazine has achieved its best-ever print ABC of 35,122 in the latest consumer report for July-Dec 2012 – a rise of 15.8% in the six month period for the hugely popular knowledge and science magazine.
How It Works’ digital edition was audited at 9,662 for the same period, making it the sixth highest digital ABC for all titles in the UK – ahead of the likes of Wired, Stuff, Top Gear Magazine and New Scientist. Howitworksdaily.com, the brand’s main website recently surpassed 110,000 monthly unique users.
“The ABC marks an incredible end to an incredible 2012 for How It Works,” declared Aaron Asadi, Head Of Publishing. “Not only is print circulation up and not only are digital edition sales the sixth-best in the country, but the total reach is now at record levels and the How It Works brand has had unrivalled success in the bookazine and eBook markets. How It Works now reaches over 327,000 engaged minds a month – and it’s only just beginning.”
Editor Helen Laidlaw added: “While brilliant stats like this are of course testament to the entire magazine team’s dedication to creating a high-quality product each month, it also serves to remind the industry just how vital the science scene is today. We’re very proud indeed.”
Account Manager Liz Tucker said: “This excellent result yet again demonstrates our commitment to our advertisers, through extensive marketing and the production of a consistently high-quality magazine that ensures our readers continue to love How It Works.”
“How It Works has shown fantastic growth every year since its launch in 2009 and it’s great to see this success continue in what’s proving an increasingly difficult market for many other publishers,” added Dave Harfield, Editor In Chief. “Today’s result is a tribute to the hard work across the board from the teams at Imagine Publishing, from the excellent editorial to the diligent efforts of circulation and subscriptions. We’re certain that this growth will continue.”
Redan Publishing
REDAN’S CHILDREN’S MAGAZINES CELEBRATE CONTINUED SUCCESS!
Award winning children’s magazine publisher Redan Publishing Ltd is topping the ABC charts for the 6th consecutive year!
Redan’s flagship Fun To Learn range has continued its dominance at the top of the pre-school charts, with rising sales bucking the national decline. Number 1 in the chart is FTL Peppa Pig, flying high with an average sale of 86,878 copies (an increase of 13% year on year), alongside its sister title Peppa Pig Bag-o-Fun which is averaging sales of 63,000; following closely is FTL Friends in 2nd place, with an average sale of 80,096 copies, an increase of 7.8% year on year.
The Redan team is also delighted to report that their flagship girls’ magazine, Sparkle World, remains the Number 1 compilation Primary Girls title, posting an average sale of 51,000 copies and beating off strong competition from the likes of Barbie, Girl Talk and Jacqueline Wilson. There is no other magazine like Sparkle World, with its sparkly front cover, mix of the hottest and cutest characters and fantastic free gifts, and this continued popularity has seen the successful launch of its new sister title Sparkle World Bag-o-Fun.
Robert Sutherland, Managing Director, said: “We are delighted to not only be at the top of the pre-school ABC charts again, but also to be able to report such a healthy increase in sales at a time when magazine sales on the whole are down. We believe that this is down to offering the best value for money, coupled with our top-class editorial and design, and selection of characters, giving readers and their parents exactly what they demand in this highly competitive market.”
