Maclean's paid circ down; newsstand up

[NOTE: This post has been updated.]

According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations Fas-Fax report issued yesterday, Maclean's magazine has a paid circulation as of the end of December 2005 of 369,486.

In the second half of 2004, the comparable figure was 401,080 average paid; in the same period in 2003, 453,120.

The year over year decline in subscriptions in the six months ended December 31, 2005 was about 31,909 copies, or about 8.1%. Single copy sales were up 315 copies, or about 3.5%.

According to people close to the magazine, this is part of a "managed" decline and they are planning for it to settle out at about 350,000 paid. Ken Whyte became publisher of Maclean's in March of 2005 and the magazine's redesign was only launched in November of 2005. It is only fair to point out, therefore, that the figures for the second half reflect little of the effects of changes he has made to the magazine.

Time Canada saw its subscriptions increase about 1,497 copies an issue on average in the second half of 2005, but its single copy sales decreased by 513 copies.