UK readers said to be buying 72% more magazines now than 10 years ago

Magazine readers in the United Kingdom now spend 72 per cent more on magazines than they did 10 years ago, according to a new survey, reported in UK Press Gazette.

20 million magazines are sold every week, or 28 magazines every second and UK consumers spend £2bn a year on purchasing magazines with 23 per cent spending more than £10 a month on titles. Three quarters of the population regularly buy a magazine with 82 per cent of women and 69 per cent of men regularly buying a title.

The survey, conducted for the Periodical Publishers Association by Tickbox.net with a sample size of 1,115, also revealed UK men tended to read their spouse's magazines but that women generally did not read men’s magazines.

No analysis was published explaining the heady rate of growth. But one of the answers may be the growth of customer magazines which, in Britain, outsell traditional magazines on the newsstands (7 out of 10 of the top sellers are mags produced for huge grocery chains or department stores -- and people pay for them). 80% of magazines are sold as single copies at news dealers, perhaps that has something to do with it. And a lot more magazines in the UK are weeklies. On the other hand it could be that the research is completely bogus, given that the panel is self-selecting (see the Tickbox.net site), lured by the promise of swell prizes. But I dunno.