Canadian magazine subs and singles seem to be starting to stabilize

[This post has been updated] The latest Audit Bureau of Circulations' latest data, for the first half of 2009, shows a decline in single copy sales, but a much smaller decline than the same period a year ago. According to a story in Media in Canada, overall paid and verified circulation was down 1.58% (paid subs down just 0.3% and total single copy sales down 8.43%)

Although the drop in single-copy sales is significant, it is not nearly as steep as the 23.63% decline seen in 2008 (as compared to the same reporting period in 2007). Paid subscriptions looked even better, the 0.3% drop over 2008 figures is minute compared to the 4.78% drop reported in second half of 2008.

Among the magazines that had significant growth:

• Hello! saw a single-copy sales climb of 14.5% and a paid subscription increase of 161.2%.
  
• Fashion magazine saw paid subscriptions up 18.9%.
• Canadian Living subscriptions and single-copy sales were both up over 2%
• Flare's single-copy and subscription sales rose 6.1% and 8.4% respectively.

Two of the biggest drops in paid subscriptions were What's Up with a drop of 42.5% and The Beaver dropping 17.3%.

In single-copy sales, there were some significant drops at Canadian Geographic (24.3%), Elle Canada (21.9%) Outdoor Canada (27.2%), What's Up (71.3%) and Profit magazine, which saw a whopping 89.2% decline. Increases in single-copy sales could be found at Chatelaine (36.5%), Maclean's (2.1%) and Canadian Business (14.1%).

[UPDATE: Here are the data on the top 45 magazines reported in the ABC Fas-Fax, as reported in Mastheadonline.

	Paid & Verified Subs	Single Copy	Total Paid & Verified	Subs +/-	Single Copy +/-	Total Paid & Verified +/-
Reader's Digest	813,824	37,272	851,096	-3.1%	-18.1%	-3.8%
Chatelaine	485,231	66,640	551,871	-3.9%	+36.5%	-0.3%
Canadian Living	397,498	119,200	516,698	+2.6%	-2.7%	+1.3%
Maclean's	345,531	9,523	355,054	-1.8%	+2.1%	-1.7%
Style at Home	179,168	51,047	230,215	+1.5%	-0.2%	+1.2%
Canadian House & Home	169,127	58,098	227,225	-3.2%	-14%	-6.2%
Sélection du Reader's Digest	218,045	9,126	205,801	-4.1%	-17.6%	-4.7%
Coup de Pouce	172,056	33,745	204,611	-2.4%	-13.4%	-4.4%
Canadian Geographic	192,343	12,268	195,306	+2.1%	-24.3%	N/A
Oxygen Women's Fitness	96,473	98,833	193,198	+25.7%	-0.8%	+10.7%
Châtelaine	173,036	20,162	169,006	-1.2%	+2.7%	-0.8%
L'actualité	162,098	6,908	161,638	-1.8%	+5.2%	-1.5%
Clean Eating	61,652	99,986	147,347	+135%	-25.8%	+0.4%
LouLou	127,042	20,305	143,368	+7.7%	+18.3%	+9%
Fashion	134,882	8,486	142,912	+16%	+4.5%	+15.3%
Canadian Gardening	125,036	17,876	142,498	-6.8%	+12.4%	-4.7%
Flare	129,615	12,883	140,418	+8.6%	+6.1	+8.4%
More	119,671	20,747	136,392	+1.4%	-8.9%	-0.2%
Good Times	136,392	N/A	135,980	-4.9%	N/A	-4.9%
Le Bel Âge	132,733	3,247	132,368	+0.8%	-31.50%	-0.40%
Today's Parent	125,669	6,699	128,681	-0.7%	-19.7%	-1.8%
Elle Canada	102,993	25,688	123,629	+5.6%	-21.9%	-1.3%
Best Health	107,538	16,091	120,257	N/A	N/A	N/A
Harrowsmith Country Life	108,662	11,595	108,991	-3.9%	+11.8%	-2.6%
Hello!	40,994	67,997	106,786	+161.2%	+14.5%	+45.1%
MoneySense	93,053	13,733	100,077	+1.4%	+4.3%	+1.8%
Canadian Home Workshop	95,232	4,845	98,138	-5.6%	-35.9%	-7.7%
TV Hebdo	59,764	38,374	95,529	-8.7%	-9.3%	-9%
The Hockey News	84,735	10,794	90,633	+6.1%	-0.3%	+5.4%
Outdoor Canada	82,868	7,765	90,520	+4.3%	-27.2%	+0.6%
Toronto Life	79,668	10,852	89,969	-0.1%	-7.4%	-1.1%
Canadian Business	85,865	4,104	89,004	+15.2%	+4.3%	+14.7%
American Curves	34,344	54,660	85,491	+15.3%	-28.9%	-16.5%
7 Jours	1,674	83,817	82,437	-15.7%	-3.8%	-4.1%
Décormag	76,099	6,338	80,626	-1%	-28.8%	-3.9%
Affaires Plus	79,512	1,114	80,526	-2.6%	-17.3%	-2.8%
Elle Québec	64,573	15,953	78,102	-1.9%	-29.1%	-8.9%
Les Affaires	76,635	1,467	76,118	-1%	-17.4%	-1.4%
Décoration Chez-Soi	55,650	20,468	75,784	-5.8%	-8.3%	-6.4%
Vita	63,215	12,569	68,909	N/A	N/A	N/A
LouLou (French)	52,517	16,392	64,643	-1.5%	+5.1%	N/A
Clin d'Oeil	45,589	19,054	64,163	-7.9%	-5%	-7%
Les idées de ma maison	49,297	14,866	63,128	-3.3%	-15.5%	-6.40%
Fleures Plantes Jardins	57,606	5,522	58,075	-1.5%	-38.4%	-6.4%
La Semaine	N/A	58,075	52,409	N/A	+6.1%	+4.2%