How digital weighs up against print for UK magazine circulations

journalism.co.uk reporting: The Audit Bureau for Circulation (ABC) has released the first ever combined print and digital figures for UK consumer magazines in 2013, based on the average number of sales for a digital edition of each issue.

The IPC Media title What's On TV ranked highest with a combined total circulation of 1,051,129, of which 1,571 were digital editions. Slimming World Magazine placed second with a combined circulation of 458,517 with 7,739 digital editions, while Glamour magazine placed third with a combined total of just over 415,000, supported by 4,778 digital editions.

In a press release accompanying the announcement, managing director of IPC advertising, Charlie Meredith, said: "We continue to expand and look for new ways to engage with our audiences and ensure that our brands are everywhere our consumers need and want them to be."

In terms of purely digital editions, ABC confirmed tech title T3 as the most widely read consumer magazine in terms of UK digital editions in 2013, with a reported figure of 22,319 average digital editions sold per issue, a year-on-year increase of exactly 100 per cent.

In previous reports, ABC had recorded the separate interactive editions and PDF 'page-turner' editions of each T3 issue under different metrics. This is the first report in which the figures have been combined.

The continental Europe edition of the Economist recorded the second highest number of digital edition sales, with just over 17,000, an increase of 47 percent from December 2012.
...The two titles to see the biggest year-on-year increase were motoring magazines from Haymarket Consumer Media.

Classic & Sports Car, which had seen its average digital sales drop to just 50 at the end of 2012, saw a year-on-year increase of over 2,000 per cent to 1,213.

Autosport, which had previously reported an average of only 134 digital sales per issue, recorded an average of 2,150 for 2013, an increase of 1,500 per cent.
http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/how-digital-weighs-up-against-print-for-uk-magazine-circulations/s2/a555858/

Americans Show Signs of Leaving a News Outlet, Citing Less Information

Pew reporting:
By Jodi Enda and Amy Mitchell of the Pew Research Center
Faced with shrinking revenue and dwindling audiences, news organizations in recent years have slashed staffs and reduced coverage. Most news consumers are little aware of the financial struggles that led to these cuts, a new Pew Research Center survey finds. Nevertheless, a significant percentage of them not only have noticed a difference in the quantity or quality of news, but have stopped reading, watching or listening to a news source because of it.
Nearly one-third—31%—of people say they have deserted a particular news outlet because it no longer provides the news and information they had grown accustomed to, according to the survey of more than 2,000 U.S. adults in early 2013. And those most likely to have walked away are better educated, wealthier and older than those who did not—in other words, they are people who tend to be most prone to consume and pay for news.
 
http://stateofthemedia.org/2013/special-reports-landing-page/citing-reduced-quality-many-americans-abandon-news-outlets/

Struggling industry throttles newspaper metrics

Ken Doctor reporting:
Unable to arrest years of declining ad sales and sliding print circulation, two key trade groups representing the newspaper industry have done the next best thing: 

They effectively have stopped reporting on the metrics that make it possible to measure – and, therefore, understand and manage – the industry’s ongoing challenges. 
Earlier this year, the Newspaper Association of America, an industry-supported trade organization, decided to stop producing the quarterly revenue reports that have charted the advertising slump that has carved aggregate industry revenues from a record $49.4 billion to $22.3 billion in 2012.
As reported here, my analysis shows that ad sales slipped about 5.5% in the first six months of the year. Assuming the industry does no better or worse in the last half of the year, it is on track to deliver approximately $21 billion in ad sales for all of 2013. 
The NAA, which publishes sales records dating to 1950 here, promises to release a once-a-year revenue report scheduled to debut in March, 2014. 
http://newsosaur.blogspot.fi/2013/10/struggling-industry-throttles-newspaper.html 

Top 10 U.S. Newspapers Ranked by Digital Circulation

When news broke on Monday that Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, had purchased The Washington Post, Twitter users and media pundits alike were quick to analyze what the purchase meant for the premiere newspaper of the nation's capital.
Interestingly enough, only 9% of WaPo subscribers pay for the digital edition of the paper: 42,313 digital subscribers of its 473,462 total circulation.
 chart below ranks the top 10 newspapers in the United States by total subscribers and breaks down circulation between digital and print. As the chart shows, The Washington Post has the fewest digital subscribers and the lowest ratio of digital subscribers to print subscribers of any of the top 10 U.S. newspapers. In contrast, the New York Times is the only paper to boast more digital than print subscribers — 1.1 million versus 731,395 — bringing its total circulation to 61% digital.

http://mashable.com/2013/08/06/newspapers-digital-subscriptions/?utm_cid=mash-com-fb-main-photo

Where's the growth gone? UK newspaper audience remains static despite online gains

theMediaBriefing reporting:

Harsh truth for UK newspapers - there simply aren't anymore UK readers to pick up.

That's the picture painted by the latest NRS stats, which show that the total number of readers attracted by newspapers online and off is either static or declining slightly.

There's still the move from print to online, but as you can see from our analysis more readers of quality newspapers have made the jump than those who read popular newspapers such as the Sun.

This basically leaves publishers with two options - make more from your UK audience especially those moving across to the web, or look overseas for growth. 

http://www.themediabriefing.com/article/weekly-newspaper-reading-is-in-decline-but-some-are-more-reliant-on-print-than-others

see full data at

http://www.nrs.co.uk/nrs-data-tables/

theThe explosion of online reading has given newspapers a new lease of life and global, instant reach. But new figures show that total UK newspaper brand readership is not growing and is even facing a small decline.
According to the latest NRD PADD figures, newspaper brands attracted fewer readers from the UK on daily, weekly and monthly measures in March 2013 than they did just six months earlier.
The total number of readers attaracted at least once a month across print and online was down from 74.5 million to 73.5 million between November 2012 and March 2013 (that figures includes readers of multiple brands).
But the overall trend is clear: the growth the news industry has enjoyed from digital has offset print declines but we right now we may be looking at an audience plateau:
- See more at: http://www.themediabriefing.com/article/weekly-newspaper-reading-is-in-decline-but-some-are-more-reliant-on-print-than-others#sthash.BgQdz8nT.dpuf

The explosion of online reading has given newspapers a new lease of life and global, instant reach. But new figures show that total UK newspaper brand readership is not growing and is even facing a small decline.
According to the latest NRD PADD figures, newspaper brands attracted fewer readers from the UK on daily, weekly and monthly measures in March 2013 than they did just six months earlier.
The total number of readers attaracted at least once a month across print and online was down from 74.5 million to 73.5 million between November 2012 and March 2013 (that figures includes readers of multiple brands).
But the overall trend is clear: the growth the news industry has enjoyed from digital has offset print declines but we right now we may be looking at an audience plateau:
- See more at: http://www.themediabriefing.com/article/weekly-newspaper-reading-is-in-decline-but-some-are-more-reliant-on-print-than-others#sthash.BgQdz8nT.dpuf

The explosion of online reading has given newspapers a new lease of life and global, instant reach. But new figures show that total UK newspaper brand readership is not growing and is even facing a small decline.
According to the latest NRD PADD figures, newspaper brands attracted fewer readers from the UK on daily, weekly and monthly measures in March 2013 than they did just six months earlier.
The total number of readers attaracted at least once a month across print and online was down from 74.5 million to 73.5 million between November 2012 and March 2013 (that figures includes readers of multiple brands).
But the overall trend is clear: the growth the news industry has enjoyed from digital has offset print declines but we right now we may be looking at an audience plateau:
- See more at: http://www.themediabriefing.com/article/weekly-newspaper-reading-is-in-decline-but-some-are-more-reliant-on-print-than-others#sthash.BgQdz8nT.dpuf

The explosion of online reading has given newspapers a new lease of life and global, instant reach. But new figures show that total UK newspaper brand readership is not growing and is even facing a small decline.
According to the latest NRD PADD figures, newspaper brands attracted fewer readers from the UK on daily, weekly and monthly measures in March 2013 than they did just six months earlier.
The total number of readers attaracted at least once a month across print and online was down from 74.5 million to 73.5 million between November 2012 and March 2013 (that figures includes readers of multiple brands).
But the overall trend is clear: the growth the news industry has enjoyed from digital has offset print declines but we right now we may be looking at an audience plateau:

And the problem isn't just one of age. Looking at weekly readership, the decline is happening among both over and under 35s.
- See more at: http://www.themediabriefing.com/article/weekly-newspaper-reading-is-in-decline-but-some-are-more-reliant-on-print-than-others#sthash.BgQdz8nT.dpuf

The explosion of online reading has given newspapers a new lease of life and global, instant reach. But new figures show that total UK newspaper brand readership is not growing and is even facing a small decline.
According to the latest NRD PADD figures, newspaper brands attracted fewer readers from the UK on daily, weekly and monthly measures in March 2013 than they did just six months earlier.
The total number of readers attaracted at least once a month across print and online was down from 74.5 million to 73.5 million between November 2012 and March 2013 (that figures includes readers of multiple brands).
But the overall trend is clear: the growth the news industry has enjoyed from digital has offset print declines but we right now we may be looking at an audience plateau:

And the problem isn't just one of age. Looking at weekly readership, the decline is happening among both over and under 35s.
- See more at: http://www.themediabriefing.com/article/weekly-newspaper-reading-is-in-decline-but-some-are-more-reliant-on-print-than-others#sthash.BgQdz8nT.dpuf

The explosion of online reading has given newspapers a new lease of life and global, instant reach. But new figures show that total UK newspaper brand readership is not growing and is even facing a small decline.
According to the latest NRD PADD figures, newspaper brands attracted fewer readers from the UK on daily, weekly and monthly measures in March 2013 than they did just six months earlier.
The total number of readers attaracted at least once a month across print and online was down from 74.5 million to 73.5 million between November 2012 and March 2013 (that figures includes readers of multiple brands).
But the overall trend is clear: the growth the news industry has enjoyed from digital has offset print declines but we right now we may be looking at an audience plateau:

And the problem isn't just one of age. Looking at weekly readership, the decline is happening among both over and under 35s.
- See more at: http://www.themediabriefing.com/article/weekly-newspaper-reading-is-in-decline-but-some-are-more-reliant-on-print-than-others#sthash.BgQdz8nT.dpuf

The explosion of online reading has given newspapers a new lease of life and global, instant reach. But new figures show that total UK newspaper brand readership is not growing and is even facing a small decline.
According to the latest NRD PADD figures, newspaper brands attracted fewer readers from the UK on daily, weekly and monthly measures in March 2013 than they did just six months earlier.
The total number of readers attaracted at least once a month across print and online was down from 74.5 million to 73.5 million between November 2012 and March 2013 (that figures includes readers of multiple brands).
But the overall trend is clear: the growth the news industry has enjoyed from digital has offset print declines but we right now we may be looking at an audience plateau:

And the problem isn't just one of age. Looking at weekly readership, the decline is happening among both over and under 35s.
- See more at: http://www.themediabriefing.com/article/weekly-newspaper-reading-is-in-decline-but-some-are-more-reliant-on-print-than-others#sthash.BgQdz8nT.dpuf

Newspapers need to stop lying to themselves — and to advertisers — about their circulation

paidContent reporting:
A trade group says that newspapers like the New York Times have seen large increases in circulation, but that’s partly because they are allowed to count their readers multiple times. The industry needs to do better.

tweet this

There has been much hue and cry about the New York Times passing USA Today in circulation to become the second-largest newspaper in the United States, thanks in part to a boost from the NYT’s digital susbcription plan, which reportedly boosted circulation to almost 2 million daily readers. These numbers are notoriously dodgy, however — and if anything, they have gotten worse instead of better with the arrival of online measurement and new digital devices.
...
The latest circulation gains for the NYT and others came courtesy of the Alliance for Audited Media (formerly known as the Audit Bureau of Circulations), an industry group composed of advertising agencies and publishers. The group noted that the numbers are not really comparable to the previous year’s results for a number of reasons, including the fact that some newspapers have launched new subscription formats, stopped printing every day and so on.

Counting readers multiple times

As Edmund Lee at Bloomberg points out, the AAM survey — which is somewhat ironically locked behind a paywall — also allows publishers to count their readers multiple times, according to rules adopted recently by the group. In other words, newspapers can count someone who reads the newspaper in print, on the web and on their Kindle as three separate readers. But doesn’t this inflate their readership numbers unreasonably? It sure does. The bottom line is that no one really knows what the “real” readership numbers are for newspapers.
http://paidcontent.org/2013/05/01/newspapers-need-to-stop-lying-to-themselves-and-to-advertisers-about-their-circulation/?utm_source=General+Users&utm_campaign=90a2660671-c%3Amed+d%3A05-03&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1dd83065c6-90a2660671-99152541

Why Digital Natives don’t like newspapers?

Newsosaur reporting:
...If publishers intend to make good on their long-stated pledge to pivot from print to digital products, it is important for them to understand the profound difference between the consumers they have vs. the consumers they wish they had. That’s what we’ll do in a moment. First, a few facts: 

∷ Print newspaper readership ranged from 16% of forty-somethings to only 6% of those in their twenties, according to a survey released last year by the Pew Research Center.  By contrast, Pew found that 30% of Americans aged 50-64 and 48% of those over the age of 65 had read a newspaper on the prior day.

∷ The repudiation of the print delivery system by young people is probably the single greatest factor in the sharp decline Pew detected in newspaper readership in the last decade.  Pew found that only 29% of the American population read a newspaper in 2012, as compared with 56% in 1991 – the first time researchers asked the question.
http://newsosaur.blogspot.fi/2013/02/why-digital-natives-dont-like-newspapers.html

Digital and newspaper readerships combined for UK

theguardian reporting:
How many people are really looking at this page right now? As of today, we may have a better idea.
Traditionally, news websites rely on the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABCs), which measure browsers by devices.
British print newspapers have used the National Readership Survey to guess how many people are actually reading each paper, as opposed to the numbers that are being sold.
But combining those print readers with each newspaper's digital users has been tricky. How to measure on the same basis?
Now it's been done - for the first time, print and digital figures combined in the new NRS Print and Digital Data survey (NRS PADD)
Josh Halliday writes today that the figures show

The Guardian has the biggest total monthly readership of British quality titles … The Guardian's website and newspaper editions had a total monthly readership of 8.95 million in the year to March 2012, ahead of the Daily Telegraph audience of 8.82 million …
Including Sunday editions sees the Guardian and Observer remain in the top spot for quality titles, with a combined readership of 9.57 million. The Daily and Sunday Telegraph had 9.46 million readers in total, the Times and Sunday Times had 7.93 million and the Independent and its Sunday sister title had 5.83 million

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/sep/12/digital-newspaper-readerships-national-survey

In new ad downturn, subscription salvation for some, gold rush for others

paidcontent reporting:
By now, the world was supposed to have emerged from the worst of the global economic storm that dampened advertising dollars through 2008 and 2010. But lingering European concerns suggest the ad dip is back, according to several company earnings disclosures this week.
As it returns, some publishers are congratulating themselves on having erected their flood defences – building digital products that consumers, rather than advertisers, pay for. But others are riding an advertising wave that’s still growing, pushing them to shores of sustainability they are convinced are becoming visible.
Financial Times
FT Group reported for the last half-year: “Our advertising revenues declined, as expected, with growth online and in luxury and personal finance more than offset by declines in trade and recruitment. Advertising demand remains volatile and visibility poor.”
But, just as FT.com MD Rob Grimshaw forecast to paidContent in May, FT digital subscriptions have now surpassed print circulation for the first time, after growing 31 percent from last year to over 300,000. That gives the publisher, which has long committed to reducing its advertising reliance, welcome shelter.
http://paidcontent.org/2012/07/27/in-new-downturn-subscription-salvation-for-some-ad-gold-rush-for-others/?utm_source=Daily+Buzz+from+eMedia+Vitals&utm_campaign=5d9c3f36e4-_nb_DB_07-30-2012&utm_medium=email

Audit Bureau Of Circulations Endorses Meaningful Metrics On Digital Mags

mocoNews.net reporting:

The Audit Bureau of Circulations is hoping to make its reporting more relevant to an e-reading age with a new set of standards requiring much more detailed reporting of digital magazine sales.

ABC’s board of directors has endorsed a new reporting format that would require large consumer magazine publishers to break down digital magazine subscriptions and single-copy sales by platform. Currently they report this info across all platforms, lumped under “digital.”

If passed, the new standards would not apply to everyone. Publishers whose digital editions make up more than two percent of circulation and average at least 3,000 copies would be required to break down circulation by platform—web and mobile browser editions, tablet and smartphone apps and multi-platform offers. This data would include the number of unique browsers or devices, total visits and average visit length. (Here’s an example of how a statement would look—PDF.)
Publishers would also be required to disclose the number of digital editions sold in bundles.
The proposed standards, which were suggested by a panel of advertisers and publishers after a year of meetings, will be voted on this July and, if passed, would start applying a year later—in July 2013.
http://moconews.net/article/419-audit-bureau-of-circulations-pushes-for-meaningful-metrics-on-digital-m/

News Corp Sees Digital Payments Soften But Not Reverse UK Sales Decline

paidcontent reporting:

More than a year and a half after News Corp.‘s flagship UK “quality” papers introduced new paid digital outlets, their effect is becoming clear - they are softening ongoing print circulation declines, but not overturning them.

Latest figures issued by News International show The Times and Sunday Times websites, apps and digital editions gathered a total 6,147 new customers in January…
...
But, despite the customer additions, total cross-format paid sales for each title are lower than a year ago…

News International combines print and new digital paid copies to show that total paid sales are holding up. When combined, Times sales look healthier than they would be if observers considered only print circulation, which is falling despite a seasonal fillip at The Sunday Times.
Typically, iPad has played a big part in generating the Times’ digital custom. The daily title saw an average 59,882 copies downloaded daily in January, while the Sunday stablemate clocked 63,959.
 http://paidcontent.org/article/419-news-corp-sees-digital-payments-soften-but-not-reverse-uk-sales-decline/

Celeb Weeklies Still Struggling on Newsstands

adweek reporting:
The magazine circulation report due out next week will show celebrity weeklies are continuing to take a beating on the newsstand, according to early indications.
Newsstand giant People, usually a reliably strong seller, tumbled 12.4 percent on newsstands to an average of 1.1 million for the second half of 2011 versus the year-earlier period, per the Audit Bureau of Circulations’ Rapid Report. This follows a first half in which the Time Inc. title’s newsstand sales fell 10.5 percent year over year.
The industry bellwether still managed to keep its total circ essentially even at 3.6 million by selling 4.3 percent more subscriptions, though. All told, it also delivered a 3.5 percent bonus over its circulation promise, which should keep advertisers happy.
People's results don't augur well for the rest of the category, though. Indeed, Bauer Publishing's In Touch and Life & Style fell about 8.5 percent and 7.5 percent, respectively, on the newsstand.
...

American Media Inc.’s Star missed rate base on 12 of the 22 second-half issues reported so far while Wenner Media’s Us Weekly missed its circulation guarantee on five of 13 issues. Numbers are from the Rapid Report.
David Leckey, evp of American Media, said AMI's newsstand would be down about 16 percent across its titles and predicted an industrywide newsstand decline of about 9 percent. "Fitness, celebrity—I think it was one of the hardest six months that I can remember."
Other newsstand giants also struggled against a backdrop of a sluggish economy and reader migration online. No. 1 seller Hearst's Cosmopolitan was off 6.4 percent to 1.5 million. Time Inc.'s In Style fell 14 percent to 561,630.
Condé Nast’s single copy sales fell 10.5 percent across its 18-title portfolio. The shortfall was caused by declines at its biggest newsstand sellers, Glamour, which was down 10 percent; Vogue, off 5.6 percent; and Vanity Fair, down 20.1 percent.
http://www.adweek.com/news/press/celeb-weeklies-still-struggling-newsstands-137962

Daily Paper Going the Way of the Milkman

Editor & Publisher reporting: Daily newspaper delivery will go the way of the milkman in a growing number of communities in 2012 and beyond.

Barring a miraculous turnaround in the economy, a sea change in the thinking of media buyers, or a late-breaking proclivity for print in the sub-geezer population, publishers in ever more communities are likely to reduce the number of days they provide home delivery — or print a newspaper altogether.

Nowhere else is the demise of daily delivery more dramatic than in Michigan, where more than two-thirds of households will be unable get seven-day service after the end of January.

The rationing began with a bang in 2009, when the two Detroit dailies, the Free Press and the News, stunned the industry by cutting home delivery to just Thursday, Friday, and Sunday. Although the Motown metros continue to print every day of the week, anyone wanting a paper on non-delivery days has to fetch one at a retail location.

Unsurprisingly, the Monday-through- Friday circulation of both Detroit papers plunged between March 2008 and March 2011, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The daily circulation of the Free Press in the period fell 54.7 percent to 168,985, and daily sales of the News tumbled 51.7 percent to 90,914. Even though Sunday home delivery continued without interruption, the circulation of the Freep (the only title publishing on that day) is down 21.6 percent at 475,543. The Freep, which is owned by Gannett, and the News, which is owned by MediaNews Group, are partners in a joint operating agreement.

The daily drought is scheduled to widen to other Michigan communities in February, when the Grand Rapids Press, Kalamazoo Gazette, Muskegon Chronicle, and Jackson Citizen Patriot reduce home delivery to Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday from their current seven-day schedules. Just as in Detroit, single copies of each newspaper — all of which are owned by Advance Newspapers — will be available to consumers who take the trouble to track them down. In cutting back home delivery, Advance emphasized the intention to attract more traffic to its statewide digital portal, MLive.com.

While determined readers for the time being can still buy a daily paper in Detroit and Grand Rapids, there has been no such option since mid-2009 in Ann Arbor. That’s where Advance replaced its seven-day Ann Arbor News with an “online digital media company” called AnnArbor.com, which puts out print editions just Thursday and Sunday. Since the change, daily circulation for the print product has slid by 30.8 percent to 30,422, according to ABC.

If Michigan is ground zero for the un-dailying of newspapers, it is far from alone. Journal Register Co. knocked two days off the seven-day print cycle of some of its titles in Upstate New York. Media General cut the publication of its smaller seven-day papers in North Carolina to three days a week. GateHouse Media did the same in Kansas..
http://editorandpublisher.com/TopStories/Article/Newsosaur--Daily-Paper-Going-the-Way-of-the-Milkman

The Leveson inquiry aside, are we going to have any newspapers left to regulate?

Guardian reporting: f November seemed a wicked month on the newsstands, December was a wake to make even Tesco feel good. Mr Desmond's Daily Star is down 13.6% in a year (to 616,000). His Daily Express has slipped 4.37% to below 600,000. Does it console him that the Sun has plunged 3.56% in a month and 6.65% year on year, and at 2,531,000 copies a day has kissed 3 million goodbye for ever? Or that his big chum Paul Dacre has watched his beloved Mail dip below 2 million a day? Possibly. But only in the most macabre of fashions.
Dailies generally are selling over 6% less than they did at the end of 2010. Redtop dailies, averaged over six months, are now down more than 8.7% in a year. The middle market has seen 4.8% disappear, and though the quality end – only 1.3% gone – is holding firmer, the fact is that the national newspaper business is, in Desmond terms, an effing and blinding nightmare. The grisly question for the day after tomorrow may not be what kind of press regulation we want, but whether there's any press to regulate.
But wait a while, and ask a few hard questions. Ask whether sweeping generalisations about industry rises and falls make total sense – and whether there is anything around you could still call a British newspaper "industry"?
...
Do we ever bother to find out why? Well, you won't see many Leveson witnesses at overseas newspaper conferences. Talk to them about the success (since its founding in 2009) of Il Fatto Quotidiano in Italy (straight facts, no spin) and you'll get a blank look. How has Christian van Thillo set about reviving Belgian circulations since he took over De Persgroep? What can we learn from the rise of Fakt in Warsaw? Why is Norway the fountainhead of newspaper reading and its Schibsted group one of UK analysts' best-buy stocks?
The America that British media automatically looks to has little to impart. Its newspaper industry isn't national and is often perilously short on precise market comparisons. Why are British papers slipping so fast? Some of the answers are American, to be sure. Because they keep banging up cover prices (to $2.50 now at the New York Times; to £2.50 at an FT down 14.4% year on year). Because, under economic whips, they're stopping selling at all outside their immediate areas: artificially ordained decline. Because, in a way the LA Times or Chicago Tribune would instantly embrace, they think offering less at a higher price is a great strategy – see the Sunday Herald in Glasgow, crunched of its sections by Gannett and down 28% in a trice...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jan/15/abc-circulations-leveson

Hearst’s Food Network Magazine Sees 7th Ratebase Increase in 3 Years

Folio reporting: Food Network Magazine seems to be cooking up excitement with readers—Hearst Magazines announced Wednesday that the publication will increase its ratebase by 50,000 up to 1.45 million beginning this summer.
This is the 7th ratebase increase for the title since it launched in 2009. The most recent increase is taking effect for the January/February 2012 issue, bringing the title up to 1.4 million. Test issues of the magazine were first contemplated back in the fall of 2008 with an initial circulation pool of 300,000 issues. In August 2011 Hearst announced the January/February issue of the magazine would reach 1.4 million, up from 1.3 million at the time, and now surpassing that initial figure by 50,000 for the July/August 2012 issue.
Shortly after the publication debuted it was named one of the most notable launches of 2009 and the publisher was able to triple its circulation by 2010. The magazine now expects circulation for the second half of 2011 to be about 21 percent above ratebase.
According to its most recent filings with the Audit Bureau of Circulations for the period ending June 30, 2011, the publication had a total paid and verified circulation of 1,472,607, with single copies (print and digital) falling at almost 340,000.
Single-copy sales for the second half of 2011 are projected at an increase of 15 percent over the second half of 2010, according to a news release from Hearst.
http://www.foliomag.com/2012/hearst-s-food-network-magazine-sees-7th-ratebase-increase-3-years

Celeb Magazines Down, but Specialty Titles Gain

adweek reporting:
People isn’t the newsstand stalwart it once was.
For years the celebrity weekly held the No. 2 spot behind Cosmopolitan. But a 10.5 percent drop in newsstand sales in the first half of the year, to 1.2 million, caused the Time Inc. title to slip to No. 3 behind Hearst's Cosmo and Bauer's Woman’s World, according to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations’ magazine figures.
People’s single-copy sales were down less than its competitors, and its annual subscriptions, at a pricey $100, were up 6 percent. Still, that the usually reliable People was off as much as it was shows how tough it's been for magazines to sell newsstand copies.

For the industry overall, newsstand declined 9.2 percent. Paid
subscriptions, which publishers have more control over, were down only slightly, which limited the decline in overall circulation to 1.4 percent.

There are some pockets of growth, however, especially among special-interest titles. Defying the conventional wisdom that guys don’t read magazines, Game Informer Magazine boosted its circulation by more than a third, to nearly 6 million, making the video game guide the fourth biggest consumer magazine after AARP’s titles and Better Homes and Gardens.
Hispanic-interest titles also dominated the fastest-growing magazines. Poder Hispanic, which formed last year with the merger of Poder and Hispanic magazines, more than doubled its circulation, to 278,786.
http://www.adweek.com/news/press/celeb-magazines-down-specialty-titles-gain-134024

Affinity Reports Dramatic Shifts in Magazine Readership

WST reporting: Largest Publishing Companies See Consumers Accessing Magazine Branded Content Across Multiple Platforms

NEW YORK, Dec. 2, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Today's magazine marketplace is no longer harnessed to the printed page. As publishers continue to aggressively leverage a variety of digital channels to extend the reach of their brands, consumers are migrating to those new platforms in impressive numbers.

According to the most recent release of Affinity's American Magazine Study - which reports the total magazine brand footprint across print, mobile and social platforms, as well as integrating magazine Website data from comScore's Media Metrix - the largest multi-title publishing companies are seeing dramatic shifts in their traditional audience profiles. 

...

For example, 65% of consumers reading Hearst magazines are relying exclusively on the printed versions of the company's products, while 11% of Hearst's total unduplicated audience is interacting with content and advertising only in digital form. One out of four readers (24%) are now accessing Hearst-branded content in both print and digital form. Overall, 35% of Hearst's total audience footprint is now comprised of digital readers (the combination of "Digital Only Readers" and "Print and Digital Readers").

For detailed audience profiles for specific magazine genres or individual magazine brands, please visit www.AffinityResearch.net .

About Affinity's American Magazine Study AMS employs a contemporary, Web-based methodology to survey more than 60,000 consumers annually. AMS is the industry's premier source for total magazine brand readership across print and digital channels, including magazine Websites, social networks, electronic subscriptions and the growing number of apps designed for mobile devices. AMS Web audience estimates are derived from comScore's Media Metrix data, using a state-of-the-art integration process to capture the real-time Web behavior of AMS respondents through direct passive measurement.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/affinity-reports-dramatic-shifts-in-magazine-readership-2011-12-02

FT Web App registers one million users

FT reporting:

The Financial Times has registered another digital milestone with the FT Web App seeing over one million users since its launch in June.
Available on the iPhone and iPad by visiting app.ft.com directly from the device’s web browser, almost half of its users have downloaded a shortcut to their iPad or iPhone home screen, replicating a native app experience.
The launch of the FT Web App has significantly boosted mobile and tablet traffic. FT.com now sees 20% of total page views and 15% of new B2C subscriptions each week coming directly from mobile and tablet devices. These readers are also more engaged, with FT.com users who register on mobiles and tablets 2.5 times more likely to subscribe, as well as being more active in giving feedback.
The Financial Times was the first major news publisher to launch an app of this type, which allows readers to access its award-winning journalism easily and quickly direct from the phone’s browser.
Built using HTML5 technology, it features continual and automatic content downloads and improvements. It ensures that FT customers can access FT content anytime, anywhere, on a PC and multiple devices, with one login and one subscription payment.
Recent updates to the app include the inclusion of FT Special Reports and blogs including the A-List, featuring exclusive and original comment from the FT’s network of globally renowned leaders, policymakers and commentators. Users are also able to customise the start-up screen with a home page of their choice.
For more visit app.ft.com
http://aboutus.ft.com/2011/11/18/ft-web-app-registers-one-million-users/#ixzz1e9dNn0tb

Newsstand’s Few Early Adopters Have Stolen A March On Laggards

paidcontent reporting:

Magazine and news publishers who have not yet joined iOS Newsstand have lost out to the system’s early adopters, according to research data.

“As of the end of October, 8% of apps tracked had migrated to the Newsstand,” says McPheters & Company‘s The State Of The App, a monthly digest compiled from its iMonitor, a premium database which tracks 4,000 tablet and mobile news apps in English-speaking and western European countries.
“It has without question contributed to substantial increases in volume for those publishers who have chosen to migrate. Publications heavily promoted on the Newsstand have reported sales 2.5 to 10 times higher than previous levels.
“Those who have not moved – such as Time Inc. (NYSE: TWX) titles in the U.S. – have seen declines in downloads relative to other publishers.”

Company founder Rebecca McPheters explained to paidContent:

“In the U.S. app store, the number of publications among the top 200 highest grossing apps overall increased substantially. But the Time Inc. apps, which are not in the Newsstamd, lost position to those that had migrated to the Newsstand.
“Since only about 8% had moved at the end of October, there was considerably less competition in the Newsstand, affording greater visibility to those who were there.”

Here are the early publisher gains we have reported at paidContent:

• Exact Editions: Downloads of freemium sample editions jumped by 14x in just a few days, whilst some titles’ actual sales more than doubled.
• Future: Free taster mag apps (previously unavailable as iOS apps) downloaded more than two million times in three days, “consumer spending well in excess of normal monthly revenues”.  Digital magazine sales +750 percent because Future added 55 new iOS apps to iTunes.
• Guardian: 145,880 week-one downloads for its debut iPad app through Newsstand.
• Metro: 155,000 downloads in first 11 days for new app, 800,000 to 1 million daily page views.
• Condé Nast:  Weekly subscription sales across all nine digital editions +268 percent compared with previous eight weeks, single-copy sales +142 percent.
• Condé Nast Britain: GQ +94%, Wired +169% and Vanity Fair +245% in October compared to September’s daily average sales pre-iOS 5.
• New York Times: New weekly iPad downloads up from 27,000 to 189,000 in week after Newsstand launch. iPhone downloads up 85x from 21,000 to 1.8 million.
• Zinio CEO:  “If you measure by revenue, (Newsstand) hasn’t had any impact. In fact, it’s gone up.”
• http://paidcontent.org/article/419-newsstands-few-early-adopters-have-stolen-a-march-on-laggards/

Condé Nast Marries Print And iPad Subscriptions In UK

paidcontent reporting:

Condé Nast is finally allowing UK print subscribers to its magazines to access the same magazines inside corresponding iPad apps, by inputting their print subscription number to the apps.

The publisher has also become the latest to report sales hikes thanks to iOS’ new Newsstand feature - GQ +94%, Wired +169% and Vanity Fair +245% in October compared to September’s daily average sales pre-iOS 5.
Condé Nast Britain general manager Albert Read: “We have been working with Apple and Adobe  for some time to construct a simple subscription environment which we believe will form the basis of a growing part of our business in the years ahead.”
Digital director Jamie Jouning: “Ultimately this should lead to greater subscription growth.”
Currently, Wired UK has 19,134 print subscribers, GQ has 20,835 and Vanity Fair has 27,621, according to June’s half-year ABCs.
With the iOS update, Condé Nast is pricing monthly Newsstand subscriptions (rather than those linked to print) at below single-copy prices. In fact, the monthly recurring iOS price for Wired UK (£1.99), for example, is the same as in print over a year (£24).
Vogue will be out as a digital edition in early December.
http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-conde-nast-marries-print-and-ipad-subscriptions-in-uk/