Magazine sales tumble

The Audit Bureau of Circulations put out its statistics on English- and French-language magazines sold on Canadian
newsstands this week. Of the 62 mags audited almost 44% of the total saw double-digit
declines. And as this Globe and Mail article notes, only 18 magazines reported increased newsstand action in the January to July period looked at.

A Masthead magazine report shows the titles that declined the most when it comes to newsstand sales were Canadian Family (-75%), Canadian Home & Country (-56%), Wish (-53%), Canadian Business (-38.8%), Flare (-28.5%), LouLou (English) (-23.3%), Chatelaine (-21.2%), and The Hockey News (-15.9%).

However, Masthead notes, “things are better on the sub front—but only if you take the view that 
relatively small losses and gains are a positive thing. Most magazines
saw subscribers up or down by less than 5%.”

Overall, Masthead editor Marco Ursi writes:


All of this amounts to one of the worst showings for Canadian magazine circulation in recent memory…Only six magazines (
Echos Vedettes , Derniere Heure, The Beaver, Western Sportsman, More and Moi & Cie) had gains in total paid and verified circulation exceeding 5%. For many titles, flat is indeed the new up—Toronto
Life, Canadian Geographic, Canadian Living, Today’s Parent, Canadian
House & Home, Decormag, Maclean’s, Style at Home and Elle Canada all managed to hold their paid and verified circ steady, despite the turbulence elsewhere.

And of those that managed to hold “relatively steady,” magazine consultant D.B. Scott said they “will probably count themselves lucky.”