The top-line figures out of the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) for the period January to June 2005 confirm what the media industry instinctively knows: the magazine market is growing at an unprecedented rate. Measured against the corresponding period in 2004, overall magazine circulation in South Africa is 32.7 percent up, with a total of just over 5,8-million copies sold and around 9,7-million copies freely distributed. Add to that the bulk copies at just over 1,4-million and the grand total is 17-million. But the number gets even higher when factoring in the titles that are distributed on a weekly or fortnightly basis – conservatively lumping on another 3-million (the biggest sellers You and Huisgenoot are weeklies), you’ve got about 20-million audited magazines floating around South Africa every month. That’s almost half the country’s population.
Five years ago, as the ABC tells us, these totals were closer to 13-million (overall growth for the period is just under 55 percent). What the auditor also shows [see table, page—] is that a hefty chunk of the increase since the turn of the millennium comes from custom magazines – an astounding 710.6 percent up. It was pointed out in the The Media‘s recent feature on the sector (July 2004, “Skirting the Sceptics”) that South Africa’s corporates are progressively buying into what they see as the “personal and targeted” benefits of customer magazines, and these figures are the result.
Circulation increases in consumer magazines – that is, from a readership that buys its publications – are also reflective of the mounting global tendency to focus on a reader’s personal tastes. While all except one of the consumer categories have shown growth over the five-year period, the biggest jumps have come from the most specialised segments.
Two publishing houses that can take a lot of the credit for the explosion in on-shelf titles since 2000 are Atoll Media and Alchemy Publishing, early adopters of the niche philosophy currently sweeping the industry. In less than a decade these groups have created and dominated, respectively, the local youth and parenting segments. As a result they were quick to attract the attention of South Africa’s publishing giant Media24, which now controls them both.
The 265.9 percent growth in youth magazines over the five-year period can largely be attributed to Atoll Media launching Saltwater Girl and 8ink Media launching the local version of Seventeen. Since the latter launched in November 2003 the rivalry between the two has been intense, but in the January to June 2005 ABCs Saltwater Girl extended its lead, with 40,329 copies sold, up more than 5,000 copies against the July to December 2004 results. Seventeen comes in second with 33,254, up more than 2,500 copies.
Craig Sims, Atoll Media’s managing director, gives an account of the trends underlying these figures: “Whereas 10 years ago a magazine’s clout was demonstrated by being able to deliver news, information and entertainment from far and wide, today it’s the opposite. How effectively can you penetrate the personal bubble of your reader? The more directly relevant you are to the reader’s individual interests, the better chance you have of being included in their personal space.”
It’s an approach that could stand for any successful niche publisher, and parenting magazines are nothing if not “directly relevant” to their readers. In second place over the five-year period at 142.6 percent growth, the consumer parenting sector is still controlled by Alchemy Publishing, publishers of Your Baby (22,760), Your Pregnancy (28,877) and Baba & Kleuter (26,195). But competition has now appeared in the form of Fit Pregnancy (14,150), out of another Media24 affiliate Touchline Media (all ABCs Jan to Jun 2005). It is mainly due to the latter’s audited results, appearing for the first time in the current period, that parenting magazines show the largest growth of any consumer sector against the January to June 2004 results (up 25.9 percent).
Close on the parenting sector’s heels for growth over the corresponding 2004 period is the “home” sector. The explanation here is the launch of Media24’s Home, the English version of Tuis – January to June 2005 combined audited figures for Tuis/Home came in at 84,715, almost 30,000 up on the July to December 2004 figures (which covered Tuis alone). Media24’s announcement to the industry following these results included the following (appropriate) statement: “The growth in [Tuis/Home‘s] circulation is made all the more remarkable by the fact that the magazines have been on the shelf for only a year.”
Moving into the older and more established categories we find that Media24 also dominates the sports segment, with Touchline Media’s titles taking five of the top eight spots. The Cape Town-based group holds first place with Kick Off (63,016) and second place with SA Sports Illustrated (39,685), the former up over 2,000 copies and the latter down almost 2,500 against July to December 2004. In their long-running battle with Ramsay, Son and Parker for South Africa’s golfing readership, Touchline’s Golf Digest has picked up over 3,500 copies to take the glory from Compleat Golfer – an impressive increase considering the 25,167 total (Compleat Golfer came in at 24,233).
But it’s Men’s Health that Touchline seems most excited about. Editor Andy Ellis said in these pages earlier this year that his supreme goal for the title was to get to 90,000 for the first time, and at 91,849 he’s achieved it comfortably. That’s still some way off FHM’s 117,365, although they won’t be complaining at the Media24 head office – the group controls FHM publisher UpperCase Media too.
And it’s Media24 again in the women’s and general interest categories, with Sarie up about 5,500 sales to 143,434 and biggest mama of all Huisgenoot up almost 15,000 to 355,487.
So what of the other publishing groups? BDFM, part owned and run by Johnnic Communications, keeps top spot in the finance magazine sector with Financial Mail, although the title remains steady at figures of 25,648. While it’s surprising that the contentious cover stories of new editor Barney Mthombothi have not done much to grow sales, Johnnic insiders assure The Media that a jump will be shown in the second semester. It’s a bold call, given that competition here is getting increasingly fierce. In early August The Media‘s breaking news product announced that independent publisher Branko Brkic would be launching a new title into the space: “There’s a very good reason I’m after 25,000,” said Brkic of his circulation target on Maverick, “because the FM [Financial Mail] is on that.” Then in early September Finance Week and Afrikaans sister publication Finansies & Tegniek announced that they would be rebranding to “form South Africa’s single biggest weekly business magazine: Finweek.” Publisher Tim Spira explained that a “single brand would provide a far more powerful presence in what has become an increasingly fragmented magazine environment,” but, as with Tuis/Home, what combining the Afrikaans and English editions also does is give one (higher) circulation figure – on the January to June 2005 results Finweek would be first in the sector at 29,995 sales.
The even more competitive women’s market saw Associated Magazines return its best first semester figures on Cosmopolitan in 15 years (third in the women’s general sector at 118,296), while tracking steady for the remainder of its titles against July to December last year. The other respected Cape-based publisher, Ramsay, Son and Parker, lost more than 7,000 sales against July to December 2004 on travel heavyweight Getaway, to end on 80,323 – they took the pain from arch-rival Weg (out of Media24 affiliate New Media Publishing), which grew by almost 12,000 sales to close on 74,396. But the group’s flagship Car dominates the motoring sector as comprehensively as ever, and picked up another 4,400 sales over the period to end on 110,330.
The country’s second largest consumer publisher, Caxton Magazines, returned increases for nine of its titles and maintained its ABCs on three. The one title that did drop, c, is still the leader in the home category at 91,596 despite losing slightly more than 2,000 sales – the reason can only be the abovementioned entry of Home.
Caxton also has what is without doubt the magazine success story of the January to June 2005 results. Woman & Home, launched in association with UK publisher IPC, is aimed unashamedly at the mature female – acknowledging the cliché that hindsight is an exact science, it has filled an obvious gap and returned its first ABC at 78,687. Woman & Home has thrown down the gauntlet to two new magazines that will be entering the 30-plus female space before the end of the year, Me! out of Caxton affiliate Carpe Diem and Real Simple out of 8ink Media.
Commenting on the results, Woman & Home editor Frith Thomas said the “older reader we’re targeting is loving the fact that at last there is a magazine—aimed directly at her. We’re delighted with the figures and are confident we’ll carry on growing to be the voice of the 35-plus woman.”
What’s evident in the words of Thomas is the philosophy of the personal. This is something that the publishers of Top Billing would do well do get in touch with. The title’s loss of a whopping 10,177 copies – from 31,611 for July to December 2004 to 21,434 for January to June this year – can only be due to one factor: it’s not giving readers the “bubble” thing.