Although the latest statistics
on North American newsstand sales look gloomy overall, they also show
significant growth for many magazines.
Third-quarter newsstand sales
in the U.S. and Canada totaled 874.2 million, down nearly 8% from a year ago,
according to MagNet.
“Newsweeklies and especially celebrity titles continue
to lead the decline,” the industry
consortium reported. But for non-weeklies, MagNet sees signs of “high newsstand
consumer demand [for] quality publications that are not providing huge
subscription discounts.”
Among major monthly titles
experiencing healthy growth were National
Geographic (23.8%), Shape (9.5%),
and Consumer Reports (7.0%). (Is it
just a coincidence that National Geographic and Consumer Reports have also
invested heavily in their web sites? Maybe digital and print are not enemies
after all.)
Sales for the Top 50
publications, which include most of the celebrity weeklies, were down 8.3%. But
the next 50 actually increased their sales 7.4%. Nearly one-third of the Top
100 enjoyed increases, according to MagNet.
Another favorable trend: Less
waste. Publishers responded to weakening newsstand sales by distributing 64
million fewer copies than they did a year ago, including a 15.7% reduction for
weeklies. But because unit sales did not decline as much as the reduction in
draw, the proportion of newsstand copies that were sold increased by nearly 2
percentage points for the weeklies and nearly 1 percentage point for the
non-weeklies.
Related articles:
- Trouble in Magazine Land: We're Running Out of Celebrities!
- Print Is Dead? Not For This Growing Publication Niche
- Invasion of the Bookazines, Featuring the Return of the Living Dead
- 8 Questions About Newsweek's Future
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