This time last year Mediaweek published a very sorry set of numbers reporting that just four of the consumer magazines could report readership growth year-on-year.
This time around we are able to report a significant turnaround that sees a robust top 20 of significant improvements.
However, there is certainly no all-category multisector turnaround yet with all weekly magazines (with one exception) reporting a drop in readership. The odd one out is Bauer’s fortnightly Yours which, despite a 5% circulation drop, has managed to post readership growth of 7.29% year-on-year.
The most-read titles continue to be the free supermarket monthlies published by Coles and Woolworths with both titles now over 3.5m.
Better Homes & Gardens has the biggest paid readership with 2.13m while The Australian Women’s Weekly dropped below 2m in the past 12 months to 1.88m.
The weekly titles hit hardest have been the general interest/entertainment category with drops in double digits for both circulation and readership. However, just missing the double digit decline in both were TV Week and Woman’s Day with readership falls of less than 10%. The biggest readership fall in this category was at Who with a drop of 18%.
Three magazines managed to lift readership by more than 20% – Homes+, Taste.com.au Magazine and Empire. Other titles that have improved their audience by more than 10% include Cosmopolitan Bride, The Monthly, Rolling Stone, GQ and Men’s Fitness.
In total audience measurement for newspapers and magazines, which looks at readership across a four-week period in print and online using emma and Nielsen data, The Sydney Morning Herald again commands the biggest single audience with 5.32m monthly.
In terms of total audience for magazines, Taste.com.au outperforms the market with 3.98m monthly.
