Glossy Talk: Famous outpaces weekly market in readership

Glossy Talk: Famous outpaces weekly magazine market... again; Grazia drops 16,000 readers

Pacific Magazines' Famous has posted the largest year-on-year readership increase for any magazine in the women's weekly market for the September 2010 audit period, cementing its position as the fastest growing weekly title on Aussie newsstands.

The magazine has gained 57,000 new readers since October 2009, according to Roy Morgan's latest survey, representing an impressive 21.1% rise to put it in equal stead (327,000 readers) with rival ACP Magazines title NW, which lost 14,000 readers while going through a tumultuous redesign (or two) and change in editorial appointments.  

NW currently retails at $4.95 while Famous has recently upped its cover price from $3.50 to $3.95.

Famous has utilised the power of social media, including Twitter (6,785 followers) and Facebook (2,332 friends), in addition to famous.com.au, to inform readers about breaking news in the world of celebrity and entertainment.

Famous' Pacific Mags stablemate Who also gained readers (20,000 of them), though New Idea lost 131,000 of them (an 8.1% loss). OK! and Woman's Day posted nominal decreases, while fashion weekly Grazia lays claim to the biggest loss, shedding 16,000 readers since last October.

Decreases were also experienced across the reality weekly category and TV magazine category: TV Week dropped 8.4% of its readership, while TV Soap lost 14.9%.

The overall magazine market gained 4.7% in sales year-on-year.

More readership results to come.

Yours truly,
Girl With a Satchel