A clearer picture of changes to magazine circulations through the pandemic emerged with the publication of figures for 2021 by the ABC today.
There was a noticeable boost for the actively purchased circulations of home, gardening and children’s titles compared with 2020.
For example, Immediate Media’s BBC Gardeners’ World enjoyed a 15% rise in its average issue actively purchased circulation to 248,507 copies, while DC Thomson’s The Beano rose 24% to 53,731.
Immediate Media titles accounted for the majority of the 15 biggest risers in the top 100 actively purchased magazines (print and digital combined) in 2021 – they included Gardens Illustrated and Pokémon.
In contrast, Hearst UK bore the brunt of the most extreme circulation falls within this category. Best, Red and Runner’s World were among six Hearst titles in the 15 biggest fallers, with all six down by between 12% and 20%.
A company spokesperson pointed out that six out of the 14 Hearst titles reporting ABCs this time around increased their circulation, 13 were showing year-on-year digital edition growth, and 10 were showing year-on-year paid subscription growth.
Simon Horne, interim chief executive of Hearst UK and president of Hearst Europe, said: “We are proud to reach over a million paid subscribers for the first time after delivering strong year-on-year growth across our subscription touch points.”
Condé Nast’s GQ suffered the biggest fall in actively purchased copies per issue between 2020 and 2021, with a 23% decrease taking it to 40,582 copies.
GQ is one of the magazines at the forefront of Condé Nast’s recent change of editorial approach, under which some mastheads fall to a new global editorial director, allowing content to be planned globally and customised for local editions. The company has also pledged to invest 25% more money in digital and video content over the next four years.
British GQ also had a change of editor in November last year, with deputy global editorial director Adam Baidawi taking the reins.
The global approach has not hampered GQ stablemate Vogue, which notched up a 5% year-on-year rise in actively purchased copies per average issue to 115,669 copies.
Albert Read, deputy managing director of Europe at Condé Nast, said: “Over the last year, we've undergone a global transformation of our business and editorial operations with an emphasis on investing in digital content and expansion while print continues to grow. Total subscriptions have increased by 6%, UK traffic is up by 4% and we're breaking online records across our brands as they continue to define culture through content in the U.K and internationally."
Condé Nast also saw some benefit from the rising interest in home titles, with its House & Garden up by 8% to 66,828 actively purchased copies.
Zooming out from individual magazine performance, the sector’s leading publisher in terms of total copies sold in 2021 was Bauer Media (117 million), ahead of Future (102 million).
Chris Duncan, Bauer Media’s chief executive of UK publishing, said it was “proud to lead the sector” and added: “We’re delighted with such a strong set of results and the performance of subscriptions and digital editions across Bauer titles.
“We continue to be the number one choice for audiences in many different categories in both monthly and weekly, mass market and specialist."
Bauer’s flagship TV Choice sold the highest number of actively purchased copies per issue of any magazine at 1,016,951, down 2% year on year.
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