Newsstand's Last Stand?

 (Photo credit: New York Public Library)

The Alliance for Audited Media ("AAM") today reported first-half magazine sales figures and the news continue to be bad, with celebrity and women's periodicals feeling the most pain, according to a New York Times article.

Paid subscriptions dipped 1 percent, compared to a 10 percent plunge in newsstand sales of magazines, AAM reported. Cosmopolitan was in free-fall, suffering a near 24 percent decrease in newsstand sales, and Glamour newsstand sales were 28 percent lower than the same period a year ago. Pre-Royal Baby, People witnessed an 11.8 percent drop-off in newsstand sales,  better than Us Weekly's 16.7 percent decrease or Life & Style's 20.9 percent plunge, the Times article reported. Vogue flew off the newstand shelves at a rate 10.4 percent below 2012 figures and Vanity Fair newsstand sales were down 11 percent.

Fortunately for the publishers of these titles, the AAM numbers offered a glimmer of hope through a boost in sales of digital versions of periodicals. in the first half of this year, 10.2 million digital replica editions of magazines were sold, 3.3 percent of all magazine sales, the Times article noted.

Magazines' Last Stand at the Newsstand?

(Photo credit: Longzero)Half-year figures are in from the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) and newsstand sales for periodicals overall are grim.

As reported by Women's Wear Daily's Web site, Conde Nast flagship magazines Vogue and Vanity Fair respectively experienced 16.5 percent and 18.8 percent declines in newsstand sales, according to ABC unaudited Rapid Report data. Newsstand sales at InStyle dropped 4.5 percent and People StyleWatch plunged 3 percent. Holding one's own is what passes for good news for print magazines nowadays, so Conde Nast's W Magazine's 2.2 percent slippage in sales compared to the first half of 2011 is almost cause to pop the champagne corks.

Meanwhile, paidcontent.org reported this week on circulation figures for digital-replica magazines, which doubled their market share in North America last year. Digital replicas overall account for 1.7 percent of the industry, up from less than 1 percent a year ago.

No surprise to learn that the largest circulation among digital replica magazines are found in Game Informer Magazine, Maxim and Cosmopolitan.

Newstand Sales of Glamour Unsightly

Image via WikipediaGlamour Magazine, Conde Nast's best-seller on newsstands, has suffered a 17 percent decline in sales over the first third of 2011, according to the WWDMedia Website.

With a $3.99 price tag, the drop-off in sales means a loss of newsstand revenue of more than $1.5 million. The Website post cited Audit Bureau of Circulations Rapid Report figures showing average sales of Glamour over the first four months of this year were 459,000, compared to 550,900 during the comparable period in 2010.

Glamour cover girls in 2011 have included actresses Reese Witherspoon, Emma Stone and Kate Winslet, along with the omnipresent Kim Kardashian. In contrast, fashion magazine Vogue experienced a 20 percent boost in newsstand sales during the first four months of 2011, but Elle's sales dropped 7 percent.