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Media
Music titles see slumps in latest ABC figures
By CMU Editorial | Published on Friday 13 August 2010
Oh dear, not an especially rosy day for the music press yesterday as the latest ABC magazine circulation figures were published.
Despite its recent generally well received revamp, NME is now selling just 33,000 copies a week, a further 17.3% slump after years of decline. It was news that left the PR team at publishers IPC having to get out their calculators and do some big sums to prove that “one in four of all music magazines sold every year on the UK newsstand is a copy of NME”, a stat that is possible because, of course, the indie mag is weekly while the majority of its competitors are monthly.
Insiders at IPC probably took most heart at the news that the other biggy in the music press, Q magazine, owned by rivals Bauer, also saw sales drop, by 10.7% year on year, so it is now selling just 89,450 copies per month.
Of course, in both NME and Q’s defence, their continued circulation slumps are more a sign of the times than anything else, though NME’s closest competitor and Q’s sister title, Bauer’s Kerrang!, did see readership rise by 1.8%, while distribution of The Fly is also slightly up.
But Metal Hammer, Uncut and Mojo all experienced circulation slides, while Classic Rock – a recent success story in the music press domain – saw circulation stay constant.
