First Half Circ Data Reveals Bad Newsstand Dropoff

Single-copy sales for many magazines tumbled in the first half of 2009, when consumers pinched pennies and delivery snafus kept many stores from getting product.The Audit Bureau of Circulations’ first-half magazine report isn’t due out until Aug. 31, but filings of publishers’ estimates to the ABC’s Rapid Report paint a grim picture of single-copy sales, roughly a third of the industry’s paid circulation revenue.Early this year, some publishers suspended deliveries to wholesalers over their demand for higher per-copy delivery fees. One of them, Anderson News, went out of business as a result of the kerfuffle.“Distributors and wholesalers not getting product—all had a huge effect on the first half,” said Gil Brechtel, president of Magazine Information Network, a wholesaler-owned compiler of newsstand sales data. “It was pretty bad in February, March, even April. There was product sitting at printing plants for weeks.”Newsstand-dependent celeb weekly Star narrowly missed its 1,175,000 rate base for the period, with several issues missing rate base by double-digit percentages. Rival Us, which was less impacted by the wholesaler dispute, was up 2.1 percent in total circ to 1.95 million average for the period (see chart), helped by a handful of strong covers, including its Fergie wedding and Rhianna-Chris Brown dust-up issues.“We definitely saw store visits were down,” said publisher Vicci Lasdon Rose, who nevertheless is considering an increase of Us Weekly’s 1.9-million rate base for 2010. “Had [the economy] not hit, I think we would have hit 2 million.”Many big women’s service and lifestyle books took a beating on the newsstand. As single-copy sales generally are a small portion of total circ, many magazines maintained their total circ by boosting subscription sales, though. Among big newsstand sellers, big decliners included Meredith’s Family Circle, Hachette Filipacchi Media’s Woman’s Day and Hearst Magazines’ Good Housekeeping. Single-copy sales of so-called lifestyle titles were mixed, with Hearst’s Redbook off 28.7 percent and Martha Stewart Living down 22.4 percent. Hearst’s O, the Oprah Magazine was down 4.4 percent thanks to an unusually strong January but missed rate base on three other issues in the period. Real Simple held up, with single copy flat with total circ up 2.4 percent. Fashion titles performed a little better, with single-copy sales off 12 to 16 percent. Vogue was an exception, with total circ up 6.3 percent as a 14.3 percent increase in subs more than made up for a 1.9 percent decline in newsstand. While many big titles are cutting rate base, Vogue is considering a modest increase for 2010, company sources said.Health and so-called thought-leader publications continued to be popular with readers. Rodale’s Women’s Health’s circ rose 27.8 percent to 1.5 million on a 37.8 percent increase in subs. Condé Nast’s Self grew total circ 1.7 percent to 1.5 million. The Economist, which has been aggressively promoting an online offer of 12 issues for $12, posted an 8.6 percent gain to 811,664 on a 10 percent increase in subs. The Atlantic, which put an emphasis on shorter articles when it redesigned last fall, grew total circ 6.8 percent to 469,366 on a 7.9 percent increase in subs.

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First Half Circ Data Reveals Bad Newsstand Dropoff

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