Total audience for U.S. consumer magazines up 12.6% last year

92.8 million gross audience

Gross audience for U.S. consumer magazines  - total print and online - increased 12.6% between February 2014 and February 2015, according to figures released by the MPA -- The Association of Magazine Media. Audience growth was driven largely by increases in the total video audience, which rose 18.7%, and magazines’ mobile audience, which soared 78% compared to the year before, according to a story  in MediaDailyNews. Mobile readers increased from 14% of total audience to 22%.

The list of magazines with the biggest gross audiences was led by ESPN The Magazine, with a gross audience of 92.8 million in February 2015, due to its combination of Web (25.4 million), mobile (40.3 million), and video (11.8 million) audiences. In second place was People at 85 million. With a strong performance across digital channels, it also boasted a print audience of 44 million.  

Better Homes and Gardens came in at third place with a gross audience of 49.1 million. Forbes was in fourth place with a gross audience of 45.7 million, followed by Time at 44.8 million and AARP at 44.4 million.

Kids these days: some print products have never been more popular among the young

According to data analysis done by Condé Nast of historical data from the media research company Gfk MRI, some print products have never been more popular among the young. A story published by Audience Development reports some surprising trends in consumer readership.

Some categories -- fashion/beauty, men's, celebrity, health and upscale lifestyle titles -- attract more young readers today than they did 10 or even 20 years ago. Scott McDonald, senior vice president of marketing research for Conde Nast says a higher gross audience can be attributed in part to the simple existence of more magazines in some of the growing categories, such as fashion and beauty.

For food, travel and upscale lifestyle titles, the gross audience of people 18-24 has seen its index jump from 11 in 1991 to almost 25 in 2011. However the recession took a real toll on shelter titles, which were 13 in 1991 and are 10 now.  There has been a decline in titles within the women's service category and news, he said.

“There’s always a certain amount of turnover within a category,” says McDonald. “Women’s service magazines are going through the same kind of long term decline as news magazines. There has been some dynamism within the category, though. You have the arrival of new kinds of women service magazines like O, The Oprah Magazine and Real Simple that have been successful, but their growth hasn’t offset the ‘seven sisters,’”(referring to Better Homes & Gardens, Family Circle, Good Housekeeping, Ladies' Home Journal, McCall's, Redbook and Woman's Day.)

“It’s fundamentally wrong to say young people don’t read magazines printed on paper,” says McDonald. “In just the basic ink on paper proposition: you’ve had enough growth that’s kept up with the interest of the population; they’re (young people) still reading it. It’s a more complicated story, and if it’s dominated by looking at the decline of Reader’s Digest, TV Guide or the ‘seven sisters,’ then it’s missing the real story of what’s going on.”

comScore being sued by Nielsen over patents and sues right back

comScore, which partners with Canada's Print Measurement Bureau on readership and purchase metrics, is being sued by Nielsen over patent infringement. 

On March 15, according to a story on Audience Development, Nielsen filed suit in U.S. district court in Virginia, claiming infringement on five paents relating to monitoring, collection and analysis of audience data. No surprise that comScore has counter-sued.

The damages Nielsen is seeking were not specified in the filing, but outside of a ruling that decrees comScore willingly infringed on the patents, Nielsen is looking for compensation on royalties, damages from the infringement itself and legal fee coverage.

The suit drives right to the core of the data collection and analysis methods the companies use. Nielsen is claiming infringement over patents responsible for a "computer use meter and analyzer"; "metering of Internet content using a control"; "network resource monitoring and measurement system and method"; "content display monitoring by a processing system"; and a "content display monitor".

Dogeared and in the doghouse: hospital bans waiting room mags as health hazard

I guess it had to come. Women's College Hospital in Toronto is banning waiting room magazines, saying it is to prevent the spread of germs and viruses. Nowhere was it evident in the reporting that this is a real problem, just that old copies of Reader's Digest and Maclean's might be a conduit for germs passing from hand to hand. People are allowed to bring their own books and magazines -- and they better because  reading matter won't be supplied. According to a report on CBC.ca

Posters inside the hospital say the decision was made because "reading material spreads viruses and infections." Michael Gardam, director of infection prevention and control for Toronto's University Health Network, says getting rid of magazines makes sense.

"If you've got somebody who's in isolation because they've got C. difficile or some other super bug, and they're reading that magazine, you don't really want to put that back on the rack for another person."

The nature of such edicts is that a) the practice will spread like, well, like a virus and pretty soon the "public place" copy will be an endangered species and b) no matter what the industry says or does -- even if it were able to demonstrate that ink on glossy paper is a potent antiseptic and germicide -- will it make any difference. Plus, I predict, somehow the public will misinterpret this as a ban on reading in hospitals, as ridiculous as that may seem.
Many of Canada's best known magazines rely on public place copies to drive up audience numbers.

PMB and comScore combine to provide customers with a hybrid print/online audience database

The Print Measurement Bureau (PMB) will next Tuesday roll out a new, fused database that combines data from the biannual PMB study of print readership with comScore Canada's data about online usage.

The new combined product, will be available to both PMB members and comScore Canada clients, PMB said in a joint release.

Specifically it will provide PMB’s publication members with the ability to demonstrate greatly enhanced combined audience value across two of the major delivery platforms - print and online. Agency and advertiser members will also gain deeper insights into Canadian consumer behaviour, helping them to optimize multi-media planning against valuable target segments.

This first fused database will be based on PMB 2010 Spring data combined with comScore Canada information (average UV’s and page views over the first three months of 2010).

A comScore release quoted Bryan Segal, president of comScore Media Metrix Canada saying:

“The combination of online and offline audience data breaks entirely new ground in the Canadian media industry. This service will offer valuable consumer insights to publishers, agencies and advertisers that can be used in optimizing media buying and planning throughout the industry.”

Circulators asked to ponder what their association should be called

The current newsletter of the Circulation Management Association of Canada (CMC) asks its members to give some thought over the summer to what they think their organization should be called:

As was also mentioned at our 2009 annual meeting, there is discussion on a possible name change for the CMC. Before we go any further, let’s just say this discussion is completely in the infancy stages and no decision of any kind has been made....

In 2011, we will be celebrating our 30th anniversary. From those days in the early 80’s, our industry has evolved tremendously. We are not only Circulators but are Consumer Marketers, Directors of Audience Development, Newsstand Specialists, Account Executives, the list goes on.

Today, the CMC represent all sides of the magazine industry. Within this context, some feel it’s time to find a name that truly reflects what it is we stand for.

Many of us, of course, like the acronym CMC. The brand is strong through the perseverance and diligent work of past and present CMC Board members as well as our truly dedicated membership. Going forward, CMC could simply stand for Circulation Management of Canada. That’s one idea that has been tabled.

Note that the trade bible of the industry, Circulation Management magazine, recently changed its brand to Audience Development.

Auditing guidebook published by advertising associations

A new publication, Media Auditing: A Guidebook on Best Practices for the Canadian Market, has been published to help advertisers, agencies and auditors understand key media auditing issues.

The best practices and guidelines were written by media management consultant David Chung in consultation with the Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA), Canadian Media Directors' Council (CMDC), Institute of Communication Agencies (ICA) and Association of Quebec Advertising Agencies (AAPQ).

The report can be dowloaded here.

Magazines hurting for ads but research shows their audiences are UP

Financial sector advertisers may be in meltdown and ad pages may be down, but according to first half figures from Mediamark Research and Intelligence (MRI), U.S. consumer magazine audiences are up. That's right. Up.

According to a story in MediaDaily News, a comparison of MRI data for 95 leading consumer magazines shows that 74% increased their audience between spring 2007 and spring 2008, for a total increase of 4.3%. The remaining 25 titles were flat or experienced only moderate drops.

Study says young adults read more, not fewer, magazines

Readership of consumer magazines
	Total	19-24	25-34	35-44	45-54	55-64	65+
# Titles Read Last 6 mos.	17	18.3	18.9	17.2	16.7	17	14
Index	100	108	112	101	98	100	82
# Specific issues	29.3	30.9	33.3	29.2	28.3	29.7	25
Index	100	105	113	99	96	101	85

The table above is as published by MediaDaily News, released by McPheters and Co. in the U.S. It is part of the beta research conducted by McPheters in preparation for its readership.com project, which has now been discontinued. But the interesting thing is the research suggests that, far from being lured away from traditional magazines by the internet, younger people are reading more magazines than their elders.

"[The research] showed that adults in the 19-24 and 25-34 age groups reported that they read a larger number of both different magazine titles and specific magazine issues than their older counterparts," said John McPheters, a partner in the company, adding, "This evidence speaks directly to the growing concern that younger audiences are abandoning the hard-copy magazines for the internet and other forms of media. It simply has not happened."