Growth in video and mobile lead the way in magazine audience mix

Magazine media's audience numbers are relatively steady, according to a report from Magazine Media 360. There is a -.5% decrease across the 118 magazine brands used in the analysis, but strong growth in video, up 13% from January 2017, and a mobile audience increase of 1.6%, according to a story from Media Post. Linda Thomas Brooks, president and CEO of MPA—The Association of Magazine Media, said

“Year-after-year, we continue to see total magazine media audiences grow, proving that consumers don’t choose one format at the expense of another, rather, they enjoy magazine content across platforms.” 

Ironically, despite the fact that mobile audience numbers remain big and are growing annually, results have been erratic, largely because of comScore’s Mobile Metrix methodology changes to weed out bots and fraudulent activity.

 “After two-and-a-half years of double-digit growth—from the mid-2014 launch of Magazine Media 360° through the end of 2016—the 2017 Mobile Unique Visitor counts for our reported magazine media brands showed erratic gains and losses in consecutive reporting,” Jeri Dack, director of research initiatives, MPA—The Association of Magazine Media stated.

Video audience was up 13% from January 2017; pPrint and digital numbers were flat, with a decrease of -1.7%, web (desktop/laptop) declined by -5.5%, signaling the migration to mobile.