Paid and verified circulation for Canada’s largest consumer magazines fell for the sixth straight reporting period according to the latest data from the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC).
ABC data for the six months ended Dec. 31, 2011 shows that total paid and verified circulation among the 68 titles common to both the 2010 and 2011 reporting periods fell 4.9% to 6.64 million. Total paid subscriptions fell 5.8% to 5.02 million, while single copy sales were down slightly, 2.35%, from 1.35 million to 1.32 million.
The decline in paid/verified circulation follows declines of 3.6% for the six-month period ended June 2011 versus the previous year, 4% for the six months ended Dec. 2010 and 5.39% for the period ending June 2010.
Single copy sales have also fallen in each of the past three reporting periods.
Nine of the country’s top 10 circulation magazines saw declines last year, led by an 11.1% decline for the English language edition of Reader’s Digest. The Rogers Publishing title Chatelaine was the only publication to experience circulation growth, as total paid/verified circulation increased 6.3% to 536,447.
The country’s leading publications by circulation are Reader’s Digest (557,701, -11.1%), TC Media’s Canadian Living (508,479, -1.7%), the Rogers Publishing newsweekly Maclean’s (330,203, -1.7%), the independent Canadian House & Home (242,575, -0.7%) and TC’s Style at Home (230,927, -0.4%).
Elsewhere, Maclean’s also saw its single copy sales increase 77.4% in the most recent reporting period, from 20,460 for the six months ended Dec. 31, 2010 to 36,291 for the most recent reporting period. On the flip side, single copy sales for the French-language title 7 Jours fell 21.7% – from 81,176 for the six months ended Dec. 31, 2010 to 65,945 for the corresponding period last year.
Canadian Living boasts the country’s biggest newsstand sales, with single copy sales of 121,079 for the six months ended Dec. 31.
In the U.S., 22 of the top 25 publications saw a decline in single copy sales, ranging from a modest 2.9% drop for Men’s Health to a massive 32% decline for O, The Oprah Magazine.
Bucking the downward trend were the Hearst Magazines title Food Network Magazine (+16.3%), the Time Inc. publication All You (+14.9%) and Lindy’s Football Annuals (+1.59%).
Cosmopolitan led all U.S. magazines with single copy sales of 1.5 million, followed by Woman’s World (1.2 million), People (1.1 million) and First for Women (1.01 million).
