The ABC figures are out - hurrah! These are the average per issue circulation figures for magazines published between Jul and Dec 2004 and are important to those media-owner types given that advertisers tend to quantify the value of ad space according to the number of people likely to see it.
Looking at the top level stats, the monthly glossies had a good year with Q, Uncut and Mojo all seeing a rise in circulation - the latter enjoying the highest growth of all the main music titles.
Not so good news for the main two music weeklies with NME and Kerrang!, both of whom have enjoyed a growth in readership in recent years, both seeing their circulations decline in the latter half of last year (the former, despite their own fall in circulation, will no doubt take heart in the news that the latter has experienced the biggest fall of all the music weeklies).
The stats might reflect the growing importance of the 25+ market in music - that audience being more likely to buy Q, Uncut or
Mojo than NME or Kerrang! The fact that the weeklies, aimed as they are at a younger audience, both lost readers might also suggest the teenagers now growing up into this demographic are increasingly relying on the internet for their music news and features. If that is true the other magazines might be facing tougher times in the future as their readership of the future becomes more reliant on web than print.
Anyway, here's the stats, from biggest seller down.
Q
- 162,574 - up 0.6%
Uncut - 114,034 - up 2.6%
Mojo - 111,815 - up 7.1%
The Fly - 107,943 - up 1.3%
NME - 70,017 - down 3.5%
Kerrang! - 61,844 - down 10.7%
BBC Music - 56,096 - down 8.1%
Classic FM - 43,077 - up 5.5%
Gramophone - 42,791 - down 4.5%
Classic Rock - 42,030 - up 4.2%