Canadian consumer magazines experienced a double-digit drop in single-copy sales, as well as drops in both overall paid and verified circulation and paid subscriptions during the six-month period ended Dec. 31.
New data released Thursday by the Illinois-based Alliance for Audited Media (AAM) showed that paid and verified circulation for the 61 publications common to both the 2012 and 2013 study periods was down an average of 5.7%, while paid subscriptions decreased 5.4% and single-copy sales fell 12.6%.
The AAM study said that approximately 72% of Canadian consumer magazines – 50 titles – reported digital replica editions for the period. These editions accounted for about 125,000 in circulation, a mere 1.6% of total paid, verified and analyzed nonpaid circulation, but nearly triple the 42,000 digital replica editions reported in the December 2012 period.
Eight of the top 10 titles saw a decline in overall circulation, with the English edition of Reader’s Digest experiencing a drop of 16.1%, to 396,692 from 472,883. Canadian Living (+1.4%, 520,239) and Style at Home (+2.1%, 237,862) were the only titles to experience circulation growth during the period.
Among individual titles, Rogers Media’s flagship Chatelaine remains the country’s highest paid and verified circulation at 523,942, a 2.3% decline from the year-earlier period.
While Canadian Living remained the industry leader in single-copy sales with 104,676, its sales for the period were down 16.1% – part of industry-wide trend that produced similar drops at several titles including Chatelaine (14.9%), Hello! (13.5%) as well as French-language titles including 7 Jours (22.8%) and Coup de Pouce (19.6%).
Reader’s Digest English is the industry leader with 34,117 digital replica editions, followed by Canadian House & Home (11,045), Maclean’s (7,807) and its French-language counterpart Selection Reader’s Digest (6,035).
The complete report can be accessed here.
