Magazine circulation declines in the US

Time and Newsweek hardest hit as American mags perform poorly at the newsstand

By New Statesman Published 10 August 2010

The latest industry data from the Audit Bureau of Circulation shows a decline of up to 5.6 per cent in magazine newsstand sales in the US, with total circulation plummeting 2.3 per cent.

Women's magazines showed strong sales while weekly news magazines continued to lose buying customers in the first half of 2010.

Among the top gainers for the latest period are Cosmopolitan, Beautiful and People Stylewatch. Titles which faced a steep circulation decline included Rolling Stone, US Weekly and O.

The worst hit were weekly news magazines, with both Time and Newsweek losing nearly 30 per cent in single-copy sales.

The Economist's sales were down by 16.8 per cent.

Magazines have been losing circulation mainly due to readers choosing the web over print for news and entertainment, say reports.

The industry also lost nearly a quarter of advertising pages due to the recession.

However, according to the Publishers Information Bureau, advertising is likely to improve with the total number of ad pages increasing for the first time since 2007.

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Tags: Time Magazine Newsweek

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1 comment

Sat, 2010-08-14 08:18 — Paul Marks (not verified)

I never thought I would say this but...... many thanks to the New Statesman!

Hearing that Time and Newsweek single copy sales have declined by almost a third (continuing a trend of decline that has gone on for quite some time now) has made the sun come out for me on an overcast day - and hearing that the Economist American sales are down by almost 17% is the iceing on the cake.

There is only one odd thing about your report - you show a copy of Time magazine with John McCain on the front cover. Time normally has Barack Obama on the front cover (even long before he was elected - in line with political bias of Joe Klein and his associates), Time is not losing circulation because of support for John McCain - it (like Newsweek and the rest of the "mainstream" media) is losing circulation (or ratings) because Barack Obama is losing support. Or do you not want to admit that to yourselves?

The msm are joined at the hip with Barack Obama - and will decline and fall with him.