The women’s market as a whole wasn’t affected too acutely, the sector overall was up 1.1% year on year (YoY) and 1.5% period on period (PoP).  However this is not representative of the mainstream women’s lifestyle set that apparel, footwear and accessories advertisers pour millions of pounds into each year.  Looking at a concentrated base, only 10 of the mainstream monthly and weekly women’s lifestyle titles posted YoY increases to their circulation and far more posted sizeable decreases.

Replicating the retail sector, the high end fashion magazines continued to outperform those with a more high street focus.  Aligning itself further with the high fashion set, Red posted  its 4th consecutive ABC and reached its highest ever circulation of 231,160, a rise of 0.48 YoY.  Newly gained sister titles Elle and Bazaar posted small increases – although upon further investigation this news should have been a little less sugar coated.

ABC certificates are used alongside other tools as currency for media agencies, so it’s predictable that magazines have been quick to obscure data that would have a negative effect on trading.    Newstrade and single copy sales are always the best indicator of how a magazine is performing and in the case of Bazaar’s modest increase, as with many other titles, the statistics that aren’t so widely published are more in line with the disappointments of the wider of the women’s market.  YoY UK & Republic of Ireland sales have in fact dropped by over 4%. The publicised rise is made up by the increase in sales of the Rest of the World copies.  Bazaar is by no means the only title which makes use of this kind of manipulation, perhaps having been slightly unsettled from their pedestal, it’s a practice Vogue are also adopting.        

For the leading publishers in the young women’s set, there are very differing stories.  Condé Nast’s Glamour has not only retained its position as the largest young women’s fashion and lifestyle monthly, increasing its circulation by 0.73% YoY to 530,060, but it has also extended its lead on the nearest competitor, the newly formed, in the UK, Hearst Magazines’, Cosmopolitan, which for the first time experienced a drop in circulation to fall below 400,000.  Elle Dolphin the newly appointed Publishing Director, previously from Grazia, will undoubtedly have her work cut out to reclaim the lost market share.  Further woes hit Hearst with the continuing decline of Company, which posted its third successive decrease, falling by 17% for Jan-June period.  In the last 18 months a quarter of the readers have departed the title, further evidence that Company is being squeezed out of a tough market.

Perhaps the least surprising news with the volume of magazines in the sector and the recent closure of She, was that the ‘middle-youth’ titles felt the sharpest declines. Marie Claire, Psychologies and Easy Living have all felt the pinch.  Whereas those hitting the older more discerning lady, namely Women & Home and Good Housekeeping proved to be more resilient.

By: Karen Stephenson

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In 2009, agencies were  widely informed by magazines across every sector, not just the women’s, that static postings on ABC’s were ‘the new increases’ and it seems the same trends continue for the latest July-December 2010 postings.  

When delving into the full reports on the last 2 periods analysis we saw figures being manipulated by increases in free circulation and distribution via multi-packing.  In the latest ABC’s there is a  shift towards ex UK sales for many of the women’s titles who are reporting static circulation period on period.  Although the latest half year to be monitored covers the traditional summer holiday months, many UK focused retailers and brands will be unaware from top line figures that a significant number of their core titles have actually had significant decreases in the UK sales of their magazines.

 Whilst Glamour still leads the circulation race by 100,000 copies over and above its nearest challenger Cosmopolitan, the title suffered its largest period on period (POP) decrease for many years, down 4.8%.  However if we look at the proportion that the UK figures have dropped based on single sales POP, UK sales are actually down 7%.  Cosmopolitan by comparison also posted a reduction of 0.29% POP whereas the actual UK sales were down 2.4%.  Not all titles in the sector are guilty of only growing circulations through overseas sales, although Elle posts modest increases in their free and bulk copies, they continue to strengthen their position in the UK market by increasing UK sales POP and reducing the volume of overseas sales.

In the middle youth sector, Easy Living was the main casualty with a decline of 5.88% POP.  The sector as a whole continued to show buoyancy with the previous year’s investments in editorial and fashion specifically paying off for Good Housekeeping and Women & Home, who posted increases of 5 and 4.5% respectively, further reiterating the purchasing power of this audience. 

The latter 6 months of 2010 were good for the high end international fashion and lifestyle titles – Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Tatler and Vanity fair, who all posted small but consistent growths in circulation.  The trend seems set to continue into 2011 with many of this set posting their biggest ever issues in the SS11 season and increased efforts  to gain market share from each other by themed issues and additional supplements to the titles. 

Whilst the next year will undoubtedly see significant changes to the sector with National Magazines acquisition of Hachette, the most concern is for Marie Claire, which, despite IPC’s continued editorial tweaks from reader feedback, posted its 9th successive decrease POP and the largest since Jan-June 09 with a POP drop of -5.35%.

By: Karen Stephenson

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Ga7etta's Pilot Edition

Bauer have launched their new men’s title, GAZ7ETTA, with 500,000 pilot copies stitched into this week’s edition of Grazia magazine.

Despite the fact that the title has been dubbed ‘Grazia for Men’, Bauer are keen for the new title to be distanced from the popular women’s magazine.  Pilot editions will also be appearing in other titles in Bauer’s portfolio of  men’s entertainment, sporting, motoring and lifestyle magazines. Part of the reason for this is that editions launched in other markets that have been tied overtly to Grazia, notably Grazia Uomo in Italy and Gala Man in Germany, have not performed to expectations.

The raison d’etre behind the title was the desire to launch a more rounded and intelligent weekly magazine for the ‘4D man’, a segment identified by Bauer’s own research who find the ‘laddish’ mentality of titles such as Loaded a turn off.

And there’s no doubt the team behind the pilot issue have done an excellent  job – the design is stylish and distinctive  and the articles are intelligent and thought-provoking. However, the magazine has been produced by the Grazia team and some of the content is perhaps a little off target. For example, an article on Carla Bruni’s spending habits will be of limited interest to mainstream male audience, even an upmarket one.

The big question with regard to the success of GAZ7ETTA is not whether ‘4D man’ exists, but whether he wants to read a weekly, paid-for lifestyle magazine.

Men in UK Cities already have the chance to pick up a free copy of Shortlist, which contains a similar style of content. And men tend to prefer specialist titles which cater for their interests – for example sport, film and gadgets magazines – rather than the more generic titles that may be picked up as a time filler but probably won’t generate more than a cursory read.

It’s unlikely we’ll know the success of this pilot until next year at the earliest – another sampling exercise is planned in the Spring. Only then will Bauer make a decision as to whether to launch the title standalone and will we know whether we have a new, permanent addition to the men’s magazine market.

By: Karen Stephenson

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Cosmopolitan Launches Cosmo on Campus

The quarterly free to market ‘Cosmo on Campus’, will launch to 65 universities focusing on the student market, hitting the streets in October just post the hype of Fresher’s Week. 

With a circulation of 250,000 copies specifically geared to 18 – 21 year old females, the magazine will be packed with bespoke content on how to survive student life with supporting collateral from their online and social media platforms.  The publication will be 56 pages and printed on recycled paper similar to the ones used for Stylist and Shortlist, targeting the 750,000 strong UK female student audience. 

With 30%* of the main magazine’s readership falling into the profitable 18-24 YO age range, its unsurprising that the  offshoot has been developed as a long term loyalty and subscriptions driver to help recruit readers to Cosmo and the print medium, befriending them at a early stage in their consumption lifecycle before they graduate to the main brand. 

Cannily by recruiting ‘Cosmo Ambassadors’ from media/fashion/creative degrees at each campus to hand out the title, undoubtedly encompassing their work doing so into their course,   Cosmopolitan will have a series of handpicked loyalists in a market that remains uncluttered from the large media houses.  An intelligent move, lets see who follows!

* NRS April 09-March 10

By: Karen Stephenson

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