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ABCs – health: Weight Watchers is biggest casualty, Diabetic Living thrives

Sales down 15.4 per cent

Weight Watchers was the biggest casualty in the health category the latest round of circulation figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

The magazine, currently published by the custom publishing arm of Pacific Magazines, Pacific+, shed 15.4 per cent of its circulation.

From March this year it will move across to Bauer.

It was better news for Pacific’s Diabetic Living, which rose 8.4 per cent. Pac Mag’s Nick Chan said: “I think people are just discovering the magazine. People can do something about diabetes, it’s a manageable disease and people are discovering the food and health issues around it. It’s from the family of Better Homes and Gardens – it’s instructional and informative.”

Likewise, Women’s Health continued its positive run with a 0.3 per cent circulation increase. Chan said: “It had some launches to compete with this year. It’s a really solid performance, one of the stand-out launches in the past decade.”

The unaudited bi-monthly magazine Women’s Running, published by Wild Bunch Media, launched in February while Bauer’s Women’s Fitness hit newsstands in September.

Matthew Stanton, CEO of Bauer, said of Women’s Fitness: “Women’s Fitness achieved a very encouraging 50,372 average monthly circulation in its debut audit, highlighting the potential for further expansion in the young women’s lifestyle market and proving that demographic is prepared to pay for good content when it resonates.”

Odysseus Publishing’s Australian Men’s Fitness saw a respectable 8.3 per cent increase in circulation in addition to an audited 1,071 digital downloads. Runner’s World, published by The Dingoes Refrain, dropped 3.2 per cent.

Elsewhere for Bauer, Good Health saw a small increase of 0.5 per cent. Stanton said: “Health is another area with great growth potential and a focus for us. Good Health posted its fourth straight audit rise.”

There will be a full breakdown and analysis of the ABC figures in Encore later today.

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