Mags: State of the (mag)nation - December 2009 Audit

Valentine's Day has come early for some glossy titles. The stars of the most recent Audit Bureau of Circulations audit include Morrison Media's Frankie (+31.6%), ACP's Dolly (+17.9%) and Harper's BAZAAR (15.6%) and Pacific Magazines' Famous (+15.3%), which all experienced robust sales increases in the year to December 2009. Break out the champagne and Cadbury Roses!

Overall sales of audited Aussie mags were down 3% last year, compared to 2008, thanks in part to consumers turning off the weeklies (the weekly category fell 3.5%) and mums refusing to buy their tweens magazines (tween sales dipped 18%).

But publishers have been quick to put Cupid's spin on the results: consumers spent more than $1 billion on magazines in 2009, says ACP, which maintained a 51.7% share of the Aussie mag market (albeit representing a fall of 2.6%: Pacific and News Magazines now own 29.2% and 12.3% of the market respectively).

Pacific Magazines' Nick Chan said, "We've outperformed the market, delivered stand-out results for key titles and posted strategically significant wins. Overall our portfolio is strong, our brands are clearly differentiated and the economic outlook is more encouraging than it has been for sometime."

News Magazines has gone all-out to celebrate the circulation success of Vogue with a video, despite ACP Magazines' trumpeting of Harper's BAZAAR's comeback: "Harper’s Bazaar outsold Vogue to claim the #1 Prestige Fashion mantle during a period that includes Vogue’s highly publicised and promoted September/50th Anniversary issue." Meow!

But it's the little teams at Australian Healthy Food Guide (+18.6%) and Frankie we should be cheering on loudest: they prove that even without fancy covermounts, aggressive marketing campaigns and cross-media partnerships, readers will embrace quality titles. Earnest but true.

THE GLOSSIPS
THE CHEAPIE WEEKLIES
THE GLOSSIES
THE HEALTH TITLES
THE FOODIE TITLES
THE HOMEMAKER TITLES
THE TWEEN AND TEEN TITLES
GWAS Note: If you spot any discrepancies in the above data, please leave a friendly comment and I shall amend ASAP. Merci!

Yours truly,
Girl With a Satchel