Despite tough economic times and some sobering declines, it was not all bad news for magazine publishers in the latest Roy Morgan Readership Survey for the year ending March 2012.
Roy Morgan Research Readership Figures for year ending March 2012 - Magazines
Overall, 87 publications saw a decline in readership while 42 saw increases. While these percentages may seem bleak, it is an improvement on the December 2011 readership results, which saw 98 titles post declines and only 26 increase.
The men's category was hit hard, falling 19.8% overall year-on-year, with ACP's People and Picture falling 17.4% and 26% respectively. The men's lifestyle category fared slightly better, though not much, falling 16%. NewsLifeMedia's GQ fell 36.5%. NextMedia's Inside Sport fared the best, with a rise of 7.4%.
Women's titles posted better results. The women's fashion category improved readership by 2%, with Morrison Media's seemingly-unstoppable Frankie posting an increase of 39.1%, in comparison to independent title Modern Wedding, which saw a decline of 12%.
The women's youth category did not fare anywhere near as well, posting a decline of 13.4%, with ACP's Dolly and Pacific Magazines' Girlfriend seeing drops of 11.9% and 14.3% respectively. The women's lifestyle category was also hit, falling 3.1% overall, with ACP's Grazia rising 24.4% and NW posting a drop of 17.3%.
In the food and entertainment category, which declined 5.8% overall, NewsLifeMedia's MasterChef Magazine fell 24.2%, continuing its steep downwards spiral. However, several publications, including Gourmet Wine Traveller, Selector, Donna Hay and Recipes+, saw jumps.
The categories that showed the most improvement were music and movies, which saw an increase of 10.3% overall, and computing, gaming and info tech, which rose 4.4%. In comparison, TV and sports fell 23.4% and 21.4% respectively.
The biggest fall in the audit was custom magazine Virgin Australia Voyeur, which saw a fall of 39.5%. NewsLifeMedia's GQ wasn't far behind, with a drop of 36.5%, followed by Foxtel Magazine, which shed 36.3% of its readership.
But it wasn't all bad news. Stand-out performers Game Informer, Australian Traveller and Frankie all posted large increases, rising 68.2%, 54% and 39.1% respectively.
But queen of the readership numbers is ACP's long-time star performer The Australian Women's Weekly, which posted an increase of 7%, for a total of 2,348,000 readers nation-wide.
ACP's Woman's Day may have dropped 7%, but still retained 1,802,000 readers, coming in second in terms of overall readership. Pacific Magazines' Better Homes and Gardens came in third in overall readership, with an 8.8% drop but 1,782,000 total readers.
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