B&T axes print edition’s circulation audit

Misfits Media has dropped out of having the circulation of its print titles B&T and Travel Weekly verified by the Audited Media Association of Australia.

The move leaves AdNews as the last remaining media industry print title to have its circulation verified under the AMAA’s CAB (Circulations Audit Board) metric.

The purpose of the CAB audit is to give advertisers third party verification that the publisher is circulating the number of copies of an edition that it claims.

The AMAA released its CAB numbers for the six months to the end of September on Friday, with B&T’s and Travel Weekly’s numbers absent.

The AMAA confirmed to Mumbrella that Misfits Media had withdrawn its print products from the audit. Owners David Hovenden and Daniel Uglow did not respond to Mumbrella’s invitation to comment on the reason for the withdrawal.

Over the last decade, B&T has been redesigned and relaunched several times, including moves from weekly, to fortnightly, to monthly frequencies. It now publishes about five times a year.

Shortly before Cirrus Media sold the title to Hovenden and Uglow, they upped the circulation of the title and claimed it would have a far wider circulation including briefly being in Qantas business lounges.

But the claimed 18,500 circulation then gradually fell back in subsequent audits including a 13,308 figure in 2014.

Meanwhile, in the new CAB numbers, AdNews’ circulation dropped to below 5,000 for the first time in its history, with a drop of 10.4% to 4,965 copies.

The exit of Misfits Media from the print audit follows the coordinated departures from the AMAA’s paid circulation audits by Bauer Media, Pacific Magazines and News Life Media last December, following years of negative headlines about declining circulations.

Numbers for B&T’s online audience are also currently unavailable. In the AMAA’s web audit, B&T’s numbers remained missing for a second month running, with an explanation of “not available due to technical issue”.

Mumbrella topped the audited digital titles with an average of 10,206 daily unique browsers. The other audited online title covering adland, Campaign Brief, had 3,182 daily UBs. AdNews does not submit its digital audience for audit.

And in the wider CAB print audit, Coles Magazine, published by content agency Medium Rare, was the top circulating title with a distribution of 1,511,953.

Australia’s second highest circulating magazine is NRMA’s Open Road with a circulation of 1,383,217.

Third was RAC of Victoria’s Royal Auto with 1,330,441 copies circulated.

RAC of Queensland’s Road Ahead was fourth with 902,010 copies.

Then came RAC of WA’s Horizons with 573,989 copies circulated.

The sixth title also came from an automobile association, with the Royal Automobile Association of South Australia recording a circulation of 410,375 copies.

Other publications to resign from the CAB audit include Biz Events Asia, Canteen, Circle, Club Life, Foodservice Rep, Pool + Spa and Splash. Australian Aviation and Profile Magazine did not complete their audits.

Meanwhile, Grazia Magazine, which returned to print last year, achieved a circulation of 101,759 – a little short of the 110,000 circulation it promised.

And the top circulating free newspaper was the St George & Sutherland Shire Leader, owned by Fairfax Media, which circulated an average of 147,642 copies.

Declaration of interest: Several members of Mumbrella’s staff, including the writer of this article, are former B&T staffers.