Canadian mags see circ decline

Most of the 75 Canadian publications that responded to the Audit Bureau
of Circulations’ survey reported decreases or staid circulation
numbers.

There are a few exceptions: Hello! Canada and Maclean’s, both published by Rogers Publishing, reported circulation increases in the first six months of 2010, compared to the same period last year.

Chatelaine and Flare, also published by Rogers, saw their circulation drop by 10.1 percent (to 572,000 subscriptions) and 9.7 percent (to 137,000) respectively. Even Readers Digest’s total circulation – which has long held the top spot in the ranking – fell 15%, but with 723,000 circulated copies it still comes out on top.

ABC’s analysis of 56 major Canadian consumer magazines showed that circulation dropped 5.4 percent to 6.6-million copies. Paid subscriptions fell by almost 5.6 percent to around 5.2-million copies. It’s notable that single-copy sales, often used to determine audience demand, actually saw amodest increase of 0.52 percent to 1,44,800.

The Globe and Mail reports:

“Hello!, by contrast, has been “boffo at the box-office” virtually from its inception  in the fall of 2006. Tuesday’s ABC report shows that the picture-heavy, text-light weekly enjoyed an almost 11-per-cent uptick in total circulation in the first half of 2010 relative to 2009’s first half. Overall, Hello’s total circulation was 120,767, with almost 74,000 of these coming from newsstand sales.

“Maclean’s, which is marking its 105th anniversary this year, reported a 2-per-cent growth, to just over 363,000 copies from last year’s 355,054. Maclean’s in recent years has been pushing its newsstand sales and it appears to be working: In the first half of the year, single-copy sales of the newsweekly averaged close to 30,000 copies per issue, a 209 per cent jump from the 9,523 reported in 2009.”