The problem with publishing an e-newsletter that the editorial teams of pretty much every music magazine in the country reads is that when you set about reporting on the ABC figures, someone will always email in to tell us our interpretations are wrong. So in advance, well done everyone for achieving such remarkable circulation figures - I don't know how you do it.
Anyway, we all know indie and rock is in vogue, but in case we needed it confirmed I present the latest magazine stats from the good old Audit Bureau Of Circulations, for the second half of 2005. EMAP owned Kerrang! in particular has had a good run of late, with an 18% increase in circulation in the second half of last year up to 76,165 weekly sales - a 23.2% increase year on year. That puts them pretty close in terms of weekly sales to the IPC owned NME, though they too have seen an increase in sales - 9.7% year on year - meaning they stay ever so slightly ahead at 76,792.
Over at Future publishing both their rock titles also boosted their respective readerships - Classic Rock is up 19% year on year to 50,027 copies, its best ABC in seven years, while Metal Hammer saw another rise of 15% taking it up to 44,047 copies - a 50% rise on figures two years ago. Independent rock title Rocksound also saw an increase, of 3.2%, taking their average readership up to 23,027.
The big EMAP rock monthlies also saw a rise in their overall figures. Q is up 3.7% year on year selling an average of 168,547 per edition, while sister title Mojo is shifting 120,530 of each issue, a 7.8% rise.
The dance magazines continue to struggle - not that there's many of them any more - less still affiliated to ABC. Mixmag recorded an 8.5% drop year on year selling 42,234 copies - though presumably new owners Development Hell who acquired the magazine off EMAP last November will be hoping to turn that around in the coming year. I wonder how long it will be until we are opening ABC reports with the line "we all know dance is in vogue".
Bad news also for more or less any magazine that depends on those awfully fickle teenagers for its revenues. EMAP's decision to axe Smash Hits was pretty self-explanatory already, but more so when you discover that the pop title lost 23.3% of its readers in 2005 - with readership falling from 126,100 to 92,398. But Smash Hits isn't alone - the combined teen-targeted entertainment mag sector saw its reach fall 37.2% year on year, from 623,158 in 2004 to 507,472 in 2005, which isn't great.
Smash Hits main rival Top Of The Pops magazine saw its circulation fall by an even bigger percentage - it was selling an average of 96,576 an issue at the end of the year, 23.3% down on its circulation in the first half of 2005. Nevertheless, the BBC remains committed to the publication, for the time being at least. Likewise, non-music based teen entertainment mags TV Hits and It's Hot saw their circulations fall - by 24.6% and 21.7% respectively.