July-Dec 2005 ABCs: a media buyer’s view

I started this article on my Blackberry whilst on my tube journey into work, and now I’m finishing it at home, on the laptop, with, I’m sorry to admit, one eye on the TV watching the dramatic comings and goings of the beautiful people of Orange County. Perhaps not the most professional of confessions to make, or indeed, you may think, entirely relevant, but please bear with me and you’ll, hopefully, appreciate the pertinence of me admitting my distractions shortly.

So, another batch of ABC data has been released; was it really only six months ago that I was bemoaning the lack of monthly figures to keep us truly up to speed, and warning of the need to ensure we don’t continue to lose those all important young readers to the delights of all things technical?

My concern over the regularity of data has yet to be addressed by anyone, other than Nat Mags, who are still going alone on this one, hence the need to flag this point up again. But that’s enough of a moan; I just hope I won’t have to keep nagging about it in another six months time.

Just to stress - I have focused on the UK active sales of magazines as the true indicators of exactly what has been happening this period, although I have to say that I have been pleasantly surprised, looking through the figures, at the increased absence of bulks and frees within the published figures. I certainly don’t want to undermine the role of these methods of distribution. When correctly targeted and, most importantly, accounted for, they can prove a useful means of sampling and broadening reach within what can often be elusive audiences. However, it is encouraging to see that there are fewer instances of them being used as a crutch to support weakening publications in their hour of need.

Pop & Teen

So, what of those erstwhile teens? We had a clue of things to come, in advance of the concurrent release, when we heard that the bell had finally tolled for that institution of our formative years: Smash Hits. Depressingly, at only 28 years old, it was past its prime, the unfashionable older sibling who just wasn’t able to cut it alongside the ‘whack’ distractions of MTV, internet blogs and the audio / visual delights of the latest mobile phones. Interestingly enough though, its online and TV manifestations remain.

But, Smash Hits wasn’t the only one to suffer, although it and the much younger Elle Girl were the only fatalities of this period. Across the Pop and Teen market place, total sales dropped over 300,000 year-on-year. Of ten titles, only two saw less than double digit declines year-on-year, the most dramatic of which being Top of the Pops magazine, which lost over 50% of its readers from last year to this. Doubtless, the fact that the flagship BBC programme has bunny hopped its way around the schedules in the past year has been the primary factor in this decline, but a lack of a permanent home within the listings is certainly not the only problem when so many other titles are feeling the pressure too.

Home interest

Another market for which we can look to the box for insight, is the home interest sector. Publishers were as smiley as Carol when makeover TV programmes were ten a penny, but the market has recently looked as vulnerable as some of those dodgy MDF shelves. A trend for citrus shades of paint has been replaced by one for citrus juices and the fickle public have been lured into using their evenings to shave inches off their waistlines, care of Dr Gillian, rather than re-hang their curtains. With the sector down over 5%, the downturn in the housing market certainly has a part to play too. So, it’s a brave move of both Channel 4 and News International to launch into this market place this month. We will have to wait and see whether their expertise from other mediums helps or hinders them as they try and beat the old hands of IPC et al at their own game.

Multi tasking

So, back to my shameful confession. Ok, so I am rushing to meet my deadlines, however I really think that this is a great illustration, not only of my poor time management skills, but of how, increasingly, we are all finding ourselves multi-tasking our way through the day. The time we spend exclusively reading magazines, watching television, listening to the radio, or surfing the net is ever decreasing. There just doesn’t seem enough time in the day to do things one at a time, so we are doing things all at once. Multi-tasking in a multi-media world, aided and abetted by the omnipresent Blackberry, laptop or latest 3G gizmo available. This need to do everything concurrently is all too endemic in the magazines we are now being offered and the numbers at which these magazines are circulating.

The weeklies

The overriding trend, throughout this period, has been the success of the weeklies, seemingly at the expense of the monthly titles on the newsstand. In both the men’s and women’s markets, we saw a downward shift in the figures for a number of titles, whilst the influx of weekly titles into the marketplace did more than just plug the gap left by the classic titles, who saw their readers deserting them. The quicker read, and the swifter delivery, supplied by the weeklies seems to be not only what women want, but men too, and though Nuts and Zoo didn’t record as dramatic an increase as in previous periods, they at least managed to post increases, which is more than can be said for most of their monthly counterparts.

A revamped Loaded was the only men’s monthly to buck this trend; more than likely the result of a price cut and the afore mentioned re-launch, but huge declines across market leader FHM, Maxim and the absence of any figures for Front do not bode well for this sector. Perhaps, like the youth of the nation, the men of the UK have been lured by the charms of the internet and the marvels of modern technology, even if, in their case, it is being used to turn over poker hands.

Realebrity

It’s not only the frequency of titles that reflects the new time pressures of the modern world, but the content that magazines are delivering. Still looking at the weekly sector, we can see that the overriding success stories are from the newest genre of publications, that which I have nicknamed ‘realebrity’ titles. Triggered by the advent of Closer, the fusion of real life and celebrity gossip is the biggest news in the weekly market place, with nearly 10% of sales going to the two titles which have cornered this market, Closer and Reveal; not bad going for such young upstarts. If these figures are anything to go by, women appear to like having a little bit of what they fancy (gossip, fashion, diet) and real life packaged up together, rather than turning to numerous different weeklies to indulge themselves in their guilty pleasures. Yet again, we can look at TV to support this trend. Having seen reality and celebrity previously stand alone on air, we witnessed the triumphant success of Chantelle, the real girl in celeb surroundings, mirroring what we have seen on the pages of these magazines.

Women’s monthlies

Looking at women’s monthlies, whilst there is not a direct comparison to be made with the phenomenon that is ‘realebrity’, there is certainly a distinction to be made in the winners and losers of the audit, linked to the combination of real life and more aspirational content. The younger fashion magazines, which traditionally have stolen the headlines, such as Glamour and Cosmopolitan, have been usurped by the more grown up titles in the sector. Titles such as Red, eve, Easy Living and She all posted increases, and whilst their editorial doesn’t include tales of a scorned woman’s revenge alongside the easiest way to get the star look, they have embraced real life under the guise of inspirational demonstrations of women getting the most out of life. Be it setting up a website selling wellies or a tea room in Tibet, these examples of self fulfilment, combined with the usual mix of glamour and style, are showing busy readers that women just like them are busy too, but look what they are achieving.

The distraction of online is not going to go away, which has led some commentators to predict a grave future for print, but this is not so acute for magazines. Yes, the current overriding trend is a decline in sales, but smaller circulations don’t have to be the disaster that some may wish upon us magazine fans, and it must be remembered that this decline is partnered with an increase in the total number of magazines available. As long as we can continue to track, as precisely as possible, just what type of person is reading which magazines and exactly when they are reading them, we can ensure the true value of magazines in the media mix is recognised. Through monthly circulation figures (sorry I couldn’t resist), and more sophisticated planning tools, including the NRS readership accumulation curves and the forthcoming Touchpoints work from the IPA, the case for magazines is only getting stronger. As people are becoming more discerning in their media choices, a result of the pressures of time, and the marketplace is fragmenting, we can harness this self selection to distinguish exactly who we are wanting to target, via their choice of magazine, thus minimising wastage and increasing cost efficiencies, enabling us to deliver an even more tailored approach to media buying in a vibrant and flourishing market that offers us unique engagement with its consumers.