Despite the fall in circulation of womenÕs magazines, the newer market of menÕs lifestyle magazines has continued to grow with Australian Consolidated PressÕ Max and EmapÕs FHM Magazine battling it out for top prize with circulations close to 60,000. The emergence of menÕs lifestyle magazines four years ago prompted predictions that they would struggle to maintain sales. Instead, they have been growing strongly while the circulations of skin magazines such as Penthouse (down by 13.25% to 78,278) and People (down 15.16% to 70,448) continue to fall. This reflects a change in menÕs attitudes and reading habits. Marcus Rich, managing director of Emap, says: ÒThis generation of men is changing. They stay single longer and have broader interests.Ó He believes magazines like FHM are taking away readers from specialist magazines such as motoring titles, but also tapping into a market that was always there but never exploited. Nick Chan, group publisher lifestyle titles with ACP, says: ÒIt doesnÕt matter where the readers are coming from. This is a new area for publishing and consumers are buying.Ó Publishers of menÕs lifestyle magazines in Australia are attempting to replicate the success of UK lads titles such as Loaded and the original FHM that are achieving circulation figures higher than most womenÕs magazines. Rich expects the explosive growth that publishers have seen in the UK to occur in Australia. He points out that two years ago there was no market Ñ many of the menÕs titles launched in the past 18 months Ñ and now nearly 200,000 Australian menÕs magazines are sold every month. Max, the first of the menÕs titles in Australia, has maintained its circulation at just over 27,000, slightly up from its first audit six months ago. ACPÕs Ralph has experienced the biggest growth with a 24.30% increase in circulation in the 12 months to December 1998, coming in at 57,959 sales. Rival FHM, audited for the first time, scored a 58,044 circulation figure. Chan says: ÒOur sector ought to be applauded, our good mates at Emap included.Ó He points out, however, that FHMÕs lead over Ralph is only 85 copies and suggests this could be attributed to two-for-one issues and calendars packaged with EmapÕs title. ÒThe performance of Ralph next to that is exceptional,Ó Chan says. ÒWe also havenÕt exploited the New Zealand and overseas market as effectively as FHM. ÒRalphÕs advertising is up significantly on last year and there should be more dollars coming through advertisers once they realise the opportunity magazines like Ralph represent.Ó CondŽ NastÕs freshly launched GQ posted the lowest result in the category at 22,150. Despite this, Jonathan New-house, international chairman at CondŽ Nast, says GQ has hit its target of 25,000 sales in Australia and overseas and will continue to grow as it becomes more established in the market. In the sporting section, leading Horwitz title Inside Sport has experienced another fall in circulation fuelled by increasing competition from the new lifestyle titles, but continues to score higher sales than most of its competitors. Despite a drop of 8.49%, at 68,739 sales Inside Sport maintained a strong lead over other sporting titles and beat FHM by 10,000 copies. Terry Fitzpatrick, sales & marketing director at Horwitz, attributes the drop to the influx of menÕs lifestyle magazines in the past 12 to 18 months. ÒIt was to be expected that we would feel some nibbling at the edges of our circulation numbers, particularly considering that 18-24 year old men are less loyal to products and have moved to these new magazines,Ó he says. ÒBut there is no doubt we will turn that around as sampling of these new titles drops. We have seen all the entries into the menÕs market that weÕre likely to see. There will be no more surprises and the market will now stabilise.Ó Fitzpatrick also points out that the Roy Morgan readership figures categorise Inside Sport as a menÕs lifestyle magazine and says Òsport is very much part of menÕs lifestyleÓ. At 26.58%, Rugby League Week recorded the biggest jump in circulation to 25,718, which is explained by the unification of Rugby League and Super League following the damaging split in 1997. However, it still has not fully recovered to its pre-Super League circulation.
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