Magazines pretty much held on to customers in the first half of 2011 according to a report today from the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Subscriptions and single-copy sales at 418 of the most popular titles only fell 1.4% vs the same period last year. The tally was down 2.3% this time last year vs 2009. People continues to lead the pack among entertainment and celebrity-driven magazines: Its average circulation of 3.56M was flat with last year. TV Guide comes in second at 2.02M — its 3.3% decline is a vast improvement from last year when it dropped 28.7%. It was followed by US Weekly (1.98M, +1.4%), Entertainment Weekly (1.80M, -0.1%), Star (880,256, -7%), OK! Weekly (747,040, +7.5%), and National Enquirer (659,562, -9.2%). Money still leads the business and finance magazines with 1.92M, -0.05%. Trailing are Forbes (928,900, +0.7%), Bloomberg BusinessWeek (921,839, +0.1%), Fortune (845,043, -1.4%), and The Economist (844,387, +2.6%).


Other sources are reporting that single copy sales are way off (~9%) for the entire ABC audit universe – you may want to double check your stats…
Single copy sales are usually the better indicator of market health, as circulation numbers can be “bought” by means of heavy, heavy discounting of subscription prices (and even less savory means…).
The mag sector is being done in by the internet – notwithstanding the gist of this article.
The Economist and Foreign Policy mags both provide in depth coverage of events, against the usual template of small stories with big pictures..both continue to grow, maybe they are on to something?…