The UK’s consumer magazines saw a circulation decline of 11% in 2022, according to the latest ABC data.
Globally, the combined average circulation fell to 24,000,000 in 2022 for both print and digital, as compared to 26.8 millions in 2021.
The overall picture was slightly more positive in the UK and Ireland markets. This is because of the wider global sales. Circulation fell by 7% to 21.2million.
Scroll down or click this to see full tables of ABC magazine distribution data for 2022.
Most magazines report data once annually for the full calendar year, but for titles that report more regularly – for example every six months – we have taken their latest ABC report and made like-for-like comparisons with the same period in 2021.
Among actively purchased magazines – i.e. when free, membership and multiple copies are excluded – total global circulation was down 15% (13.4 million in 2022 compared to 15.3 million in 2021).
The 220 UK consumer magazines audited in 2022 by ABC saw 183 see a decrease in global circulation compared to 2021, while 31 digital and print titles increased.
Among the digital winners titles were the online versions of Haymarket’s consumer gadgets magazine Stuff (up 22% to reach an average digital circulation of 16,468) and Motor Sport (up 18% to 10,436).
Private Eye saw UK/ROI sales increase 5% to 238,322, Future owned football magazine Four Four Two (up 6.6% to 28,043) and National Geographic, up 2% to 48.098.
At the other end, women’s fashion and lifestyle stalwart Elle UK saw one of the biggest falls with a drop of 27% to 72,369 in the UK/ROI. Fashion title Harper’s Bazaar also saw its circulation badly hit – down 25% to 65,407 in UK/ROI sales. Both titles are owned by Hearst UK.
Global print circulation dropped 14% to 20.9 Million in 2022 from 24.3 Million in 2021. The number of copies that were actually being used was also down (15%) after falling to 11.1million last year.
Bauer’s TV Choice was the top selling print magazine with average sales of 972,869 per issue.
The Economist led the pack on global digital edition sales on one million – almost twice that of its print edition (561,605).
The market for online magazines audited by ABC is still smaller than the print sector. The combined digital circulation worldwide in 2022 was 3.1million.
Titles have two options: they can either audit the digital and printed editions separately (as per the tables below), or they can provide ABC with a combined digital and print number. If there is a separate ABC digital certificate, the figures cannot be de-duped. They include bundle subscriptions that readers have more than one format.
By sector, women’s weeklies were hard hit with no title gaining on its 2021 sales. Worst-hit was Hearst title Best which saw average UK/ROI sales down 27% year on year to 48,593, while Reach’s celebrity title New! This was 22% lower than at 58,287.
Bauer’s Take a Break was the UK’s best-selling women’s weekly magazine, with 300,390 copies circulated per issue, although it still recorded a year-on-year fall in circulation (down 8%).
Contrary to 2021 where certain sectors like gardening were less affected in the UK, 2022 saw sectors perform poorly across the board.
Overall, fewer titles submitted data to ABC in 2022 – 240 globally, compared to 261 in 2021. Where applicable, digital and print certificates are separately counted.
Eight titles reported in 2022 for the first-time. Among the new launches was Immediate Media’s new children’s magazine Lego Minecraft which achieved an average circulation of 46,083 in its first year.
Bauer Media, publisher titles such as TV Choice, Take A Break, and Empire, claimed it was the largest-selling magazine publisher, with more than 111,000,000 copies of its magazines in circulation in 2022. This is almost a third the number of UK-audited magazines that were sold during 2022.
Chris Duncan, Bauer Media’s chief executive of UK publishing, said: “These set of results demonstrate the robust performance of our portfolio of brands despite the challenging market conditions that our industry faced in 2022. We’ve seen newsstand sales perform solidly in most areas and this has given us a foundation to strengthen our digital and international offerings.
“We will continue to invest in our content as well as our editorial and membership platforms in 2023 and allow the brilliant talent across our business to shine. We also look forward working together with advertisers and our partners to achieve consistent results in these difficult times. Finally, thanks as ever to the millions of readers who made these results possible.”
Radio Times, BBC Gardeners’ World and BBC Good Food publisher Immediate Media said it had a combined ABC-audited print and digital circulation of 2.1 million, with its print circulation down 10% year-on-year to two million and its digital circulation, where audited, up 9% to 178,803.
Although it claimed to be the largest magazine publisher, its subscriptions were down 9% year-on–year with 997,948 in print and digital.
Chief revenue officer Duncan Tickell said: “Despite the difficult economic climate, Immediate’s trusted, quality brands continue to entertain and engage large audiences and maintain their market leading positions whilst growing reach across more platforms than ever before.
“Our subscriptions business continues to perform strongly across print and digital editions, complemented by a fast growing, premium apps business in our food, gardening and history portfolios.”
UK magazine circulation 2022: Sector-by-sector roundup
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