The NME, a strong online and live brand which has recently launched a radio station, saw its circulation drop 12.1% in the past six months, falling to 56,284. Year on year the IPC Media title is down 17.4% from 68,151.
Bauer-owned Kerrang suffered a bigger fall dropping 21.6% in the six months to 60,290. It has lost 27.9% of its sales in the past year falling from 83,610 and putting it only 4,000 copies ahead of the NME.
The monthly music magazines also suffered with Bauer's Q dropping 13.8% to 113,174, down 13.1% on the year from 130,179.
Sister title Mojo was one of the very few titles in the sector to arrest its decline. It rose 0.1% to 106,367 although overall it was down 5.1% year on year from 112,037.
Metal Hammer, which is published by Future, also managed to reverse a decline. It was up 6% to 48,540, but still down 1.2% on the year from 49,143.
IPC's music and movies magazine Uncut kept its fall to single digits dropping 4.5% to 86,925. However, it is still up on the year by 1.2% from 85,884.
Bauer's Empire put in another positive performance. It was up 3.1% to 187,202 and for the year was up 4.4% from 179,373.
Future's rival, Total Film, which recently announced it was launching a compact edition, was also down, slightly falling 1.4% to 84,520, down 1.3% for the year from 85,616.
Other titles in the sector had mixed fortunes. Development Hell's The Word magazine had a positive six months, maybe buoyed by Morrisey haters as it faces the miserable one in a possible court case. It was up 1.7% to 33,775 down 3% on the year from 34,816.
Its other title Mixmag did not fare so well. It fell 4.9% to 34,073 down 8.3% on the year from 37,139.
Entertainment
NME and Kerrang sink as readers desert music mags
LONDON - There was uniform bad news for music magazines in the latest magazine ABC figures with Kerrang and NME suffering double-digit falls.
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