Public place distribution in U.S. up by 15.8%

The distribution of "public place" copies of magazines increased by almost 16% in the first half of 2008, it was pointed out in a column by Jeff Bercovici in Portfolio. He noted that in the ABC Fas-Fax data, even though 532 titles reporting selling about 3 million fewer copies this year than last and subscription sales were basically flat,public-place copies, or those given away by a third-party partner totalled more than 15.6 million.

"In other words, the less desire consumers show for magazines, the more eager publishers become to give them away."