Mixed results in U.S. single copy sales

The latest FAS-FAX analysis from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, reported in Folio: shows that some, but by no means all, well-known titles suffered a significant single copy sales decline in the second half of 2006. Cosmopolitan was down 5.8 per cent, Glamour down 7.06, Woman's Day off 19.6, Maxim off 12.4. Despite its almost 6 percent decline in sales, Cosmopolitan closed out the second half of 2006 as the biggest newsstand seller.

Celebrity weekly People came in second with almost 1.6 million copies sold at the newsstand per issue, up 2.08 percent from a little over 1.5 million copies in the same period a year earlier. Women’s World was the top seller in the women’s magazine category with 1.4 million copies per issue, down 2.8 percent from almost 1.45 a year earlier. And Woman’s Day saw an almost 20 percent decline in single copy sales – the largest of the period – selling 685,250 copies, down from 856,125 in the second half of 2005.

The biggest gainer of period was low-cost Life & Style Weekly, which saw its single copy sales climb 25.25 percent to 744,453, up from 594,358 in 2005. Fellow $1.99 magazine, In Touch Weekly continued to make gains at the newsstand to claim the number 5 spot on the list top newsstand sellers moving an average of 1.2 million an issue, up 7.7 percent from 1.14 million in the second half of 2005. US Weekly came in sixth place with 978,285 copies, up from 954,892 in the second half of 2005.

[UPDATE: A good summary of the subs and single copy results of FAS-FAX was published by MediaDaily News, showing that shelter, bridal and family magazines are struggling.

[further UPDATE] A story in the U.K Press Gazette says that ABC results there indicate that male-oriented gadget mags (like Driven, here in Canada) are on a roll, but men's lifestyle magazines like Maxim, Loaded and Area have taken a tumble.