ABCs – men’s: Zoo Weekly down by 18.1 per cent – but is not closing, says publisher
Zoo Weekly: down 18.1 per cent
Men’s magazines had a bruising experience in the latest round of Audit Bureau of Circulations figures, with the sector’s only weekly title, Bauer Media’s rambunctious Zoo Weekly, falling by 18.1 per cent.
Zoo’s shrinkage, from 70,992 to 58,165 readers, was even more abrupt than the last round of ABCs, when the title’s sales fell by 15.8 per cent.
Seb Rennie, trading director at media agency MEC, told Mumbrella that these numbers will be an early test of patience for the magazine’s new German owner, Bauer, who bought ACP last year.
“Bauer is going to have to form a commercial view on the future of Zoo,” he says. “It is the only men’s weekly in Australia, so is unopposed in its market. But if it’s not commercially viable, it will close.”
However, Brendon Hill, publisher of Bauer Media’s specialist division, said that the company has no plans for Zoo Weekly to go the way of now-defunct print editions of FHM (closed by ACP last year), Ralph (closed by ACP in 2010) or Alpha (closed by NewsLifeMedia in 2010), despite the sharp drop in Zoo’s circulation.
“Zoo Weekly’s brand footprint continues to grow and it is the clear winner in reaching men aged 18 to 34, with more than 150,000 men every week being engaged by the print magazine. The top-rating programs on secondary digital channels would love to have a third of that audience, and let’s not forget our readership is affected by the paywall that is a cover price,” he said.
Across all channels, Zoo reaches 1.8m men a month, Hill claims – although these numbers are not audited by the ABC.
Men’s specialist magazines continue to deliver engaged readers to advertisers, Hill added.
“Men, in the hundreds of thousands, reach into their pockets and pay for these respected, credible, and authoritative brands for information and commentary on their special interests, whether it be motoring, health and fitness, technology, finance, music and film, sport or general interest. And the footprints, or reach, of these magazine brands continue to grow across multiple platforms,” he said.
Though that may be true, Bauer’s motoring titles – also squarely aimed at men – didn’t fare that much better than Zoo Weekly in the print ABCs.
Motor magazine fell the furthest, by 22.4 per cent, to 22,139 readers. Motorhome & Caravan Trader was down 18.1 per cent to just over 10,000 readers, while Trailer Boat and Unique Cars also suffered double-digit percentage declines. Bauer’s top-selling male-friendly motoring title Top Gear saw its circulation dip by 16.7 per cent, to just above 60,000.
Bauer’s Australian Auto Action added one per cent to its audience, up from 10,370 to 10,478.
Express Publications’ Australian 4WD Action went better, growing its circulation by 5.5 per cent to 50,983.
The motoring sector’s best-read title, Club Marine, saw its circulation grow by 2.1 per cent to an impressive 85,004.
Another big motoring title, Just Magazines’ Just Cars, was down 8.9 per cent, to 54,775. The publisher’s other popular title Just Bikes fell by a similar percentage, to 26,875.
All of Just Magazines’ four motoring titles saw double-digit reverses, and their digital circulations offer little to brag about. Just Car and Just Bike both have 24 paid-for readers, more than Just 4X4s and Just Trucks & Heavy Equipment’s paid-reader numbers combined.
Australia’s top-selling men’s fitness title, Pacific Magazines’ Men’s Health, saw its print circulation ebb by a relatively low 2.8 per cent, to 71,053 readers.
Men’s Health’s digital edition now has more than 2,079 subscribers.
Rennie said “everyone could be doing better“ in how they migrate their audiences online – which is not simply a matter of plonking content from printed page to computer screen.
Finding ways of complementing the content in the magazine with stuff that works best for digital channels is the challenge, he said. “The commercial question is how quickly they can find strike the right balance.“
There will be a full breakdown and analysis of the ABC figures in Encore later today.
If you want to see an example of a successful online men’s lifestyle publication, look no further than http://www.askmen.com. 157,000 uniques last month according to Nielsen, 600k+ according to Google Analytics and growing. Must be doing something right.
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With National Geographic Magazine now celebrating our 125 anniversary in publishing with a GROWING Australian audience to 912,000 readers and that growth coming from the male 25+audience, agencies ask me WHY? Because they are keen to read something as a leisure, engaging and intelligent read that inspires and informs them! With likely the largest budget of any title around the globe National Geographic continues to consistently deliver captivating storytelling, extraordinary pictures, excellence in quality and an experience like no other magazine brand. With over half million Aust online users and rapidly growing ipad subscribers National Geographic further demonstrates the true dynamics of cross platform reader/user brand intergration.
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“Zoo’s shrinkage, from 70,992 to 58,165 readers, was even more abrupt than the last round of ABCs, when the title’s sales fell by 15.8 per cent.”
I chuckled. Not bad.
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Hey ZOO – fake tits, red bikini, three sizes too small…. Boring in 2003 let alone 2013. Got any new ideas?
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