ShortList Media says: Each title is scaling back the availability of copies in tune with advertiser needs, saving unnecessary print and paper costs. This one-off adjustment does not reflect any falling away of consumer demand which remains as strong as ever. Shrinking print sales in the paid-for magazine sector mean there will be almost no loss of market share as a result and both brands will remain number one with ShortList at 40% share of the men’s lifestyle market and Stylist at 23% share of the larger women’s lifestyle market.
Shortlist Media’s titles are the UK’s only freemium titles to be distributed by hand merchandisers through a nationwide network and the new strategy will optimise performance, increasing volumes into the UK’s largest cities, including London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Glasgow. Some smaller secondary cities, such as Plymouth and Nottingham, will see their supplies cut, though copies will still be hand distributed in cities as geographically diverse as Brighton, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Newcastle and Aberdeen. In addition, copies will continue to be distributed through direct routes into airports, selected retailers and workplaces.
Multi-award-winning journalism from the teams on ShortList and Stylist is also now available on numerous platforms:
* On the web: ShortList.com and Stylist.co.uk are fully responsive sites which work as well on mobile as they do on larger screens. UK traffic to both sites is up 60% year on year with both now achieving record UK impressions of over 8m per month (as well as millions more globally)
* On email: Stylist’s daily email for affluent, professional women, Emerald Street, now reaches 100,000 + active subscribers. ShortList’s daily email for urban men, Mr Hyde, is now above 60,000 actives.
* On tablet: Stylist’s tablet edition is the most downloaded women’s title in the UK with weekly active readers in excess of 30,000. Plans are in place to launch ShortList on tablet in the near future.
* Internationally: Stylist has two thriving overseas editions, Stylist France and Stylist Arabia. ShortList launches in the Middle East in 2015.
With both magazines in the UK registering record revenue performances - and recently publishing their biggest ever issues - Shortlist Media felt this was the sensible time to recalibrate the distribution network.
CEO Mike Soutar comments: “With steadily shrinking paid-for sales elsewhere in the magazine sector both ShortList and Stylist have seen their market share figures increase dramatically. Our magazines have never been stronger or more dominant, but the extra, marginal distribution we have accumulated over the years is both expensive and difficult to monetise. This is a one-off reset that enjoys the full support of our commercial partners.
“With our next ABCs predicted to be just in excess of 500,000 and 400,000 respectively, both of our magazines will remain by a huge distance the most powerful ways of reaching urban, affluent men and women in print every week.”
