Bauer's Zoo Weekly was once a star performer in the weekly magazine market. The magazine's owners claim that it still is, and that with over 40,000 paid sales each week it shifts more units per month than any other men's mag. But a circulation decline of 34.5% in the September quarter shows how far the market has shifted.
Zoo is the only men's lifestyle weekly in the market, and is one of the few titles to have stayed afloat in an increasingly tough sector. Other men's lifestyle mags including FHM, Ralph and sports publication Alpha have all called it a day.
The weekly magazine circulation results for September, released by the Audit Bureau of Circulation, were negative, with all titles dropping in circulation. The strongest performer was TV Week, falling 1.9%.
Significant drops were recorded by Fairfax's BRW, falling 27.9%. The title is set to close its print edition. Pacific Magazine's Famous, slid 17.7%.
Overall, the weekly mag market fell 9.3%. However, publishers sought to highlight the fact that some 1.5 million mags are sold each week in Australia, with consumers spending around $6 million each week on their products, despite many free alternatives.
"It's important not to get caught up in trends. Look at what magazines do," said outgoing Pacific Magazines boss Nick Chan.
"We are still a wonderfull paid medium at a time when people have a lot of gree options. While agencies might not appreciate [that fact], advertisers do. They understand what it takes [to drive people to buy their products] and we have the hearts and minds of consumers. That is the challenge in the current landscape."
Click on the table below to download the full circulation data.
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