Flicking through the glossies losing its appeal

The ABCs – the circulation figures for print publishing – get a wide airing. It has become nearly an annual masochistic exercise with newspapers reporting year-on-year declines in their circulations.

What goes under the radar, because in between fashion shoots and features they don’t feel the need to shout out their figures, is what’s happening in the Irish magazine world particularly in the women’s magazine sector.

And it's not good – since 2009 up until the end of 2013 (the latest ABC report) many of the most popular magazines have seen percentage drops in double figures: U Magazine dropped by 22 per cent, Irish Tatler fell by 14 per cent, while Woman's Way lost 7 per cent of its circulation – all are Harmonia publications.

Some magazines are bucking the trend including Image which had a small increase of 1 per cent, while Stellar, part of Michael O'Doherty's VIP Magazine Group, has seen a growth matching its name; its circulation jumped by 108 per cent in that five-year period – from a low base admittedly. In 2009 its circulation was 8,816, now it's 18,353 – still lower than the other women's monthlies but an impressive display of reader building in a particularly challenging market nevertheless.

However Stellar's stablemate and "younger sister" Kiss, aimed at a teenage market, is the most recent casualty in the Irish magazine sector. With sales falling by a massive 31 per cent in the past five years, it folded last month.

The reasons for the decline in the market are many with the recession the most obvious one – lower disposable income means a frivolous spend of even a few euro can be too much – but there are also general market trends.

Labouré O’Reilly, client manager at Mediaworks, suggests that a lot of the content in women’s magazines is easily available free online and she notes “there has been a migration of many style experts, fashion bloggers, beauty advisers and journalists to social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter”.

Add to that the competition, not just from UK titles but from newspapers who increasingly seek to beef up their lifestyle offering with a “free” magazine insert often at the weekend with what has been traditional women’s magazine content of food, fashion and interiors.

Acknowledging how tough the magazine market is, particularly because of glossier, bigger UK titles, Dave Winterlich, head of strategy at Carat Ireland, says Irish magazines do at least play to their strengths, offering "brands integrated campaign solutions such as editorial and promotions" that their UK rivals cannot.

Anyone who has ever worked in a women's magazine – and I edited Irish Tatler – will admit to rolling their eyes at all the fuss about native advertising as if it's a shockingly new thing when promotions and advertorials have always been a strong feature in the advertising mix in Irish magazines.

“Magazines are still a strong environment for consumer brands but the premium is very high because the cost of producing printed content has grown significantly,” says Winterlich. “I think digital has also encroached in this space, Daily Mail Online, Evoke.ie, Her.ie and Shemazing all have strong digital offerings and this is hurting print publishers.”

Paul Moran, managing director at Mediaworks, cautions against too downbeat an outlook. "The percentage drops are very big but to get a real feel for the market you're better off talking about numbers not percentages. Irish Tatler had an average circulation in 2013 of 23,057, U had 22,585 while Image had 22,371. That represents a significant market.

“People like to flick through glossy print and they are committed readers who have spent three or four euro on a publication and tend to be loyal to it. That’s attractive to advertisers.”

Given the massive competition pelting the Irish magazine sector from all sides, he says, “it’s a credit to them that they have kept their figures so strong”.

What is curious is what’s happening to TV magazines. Irish people are watching more TV than ever before – more than three hours every day – but to plan their viewing they are buying fewer TV listings magazines.

In the five-year period from 2009 TV Now dropped 18 per cent (to 24,511) while the RTÉ Guide experienced a serious decline – one of the biggest losses for any magazine in the survey.

According to ABC figures as crunched by Mediaworks its circulation went from 87,561 in 2009 to 57,062 in 2013 representing a decrease of nearly 35 per cent.

@berniceharrison