In light of Audit Bureau of Circulations Fas-Fax results released last week, the dire effects of plummeting direct mail response rates on magazine subscription sales are either overrated or haven't fully hit home yet. With the exception of certain categories in this week's group (e.g., general editorial and newsweeklies), publishers looking for deep declines in sub sales won't necessarily find the end of the world in these figures. Although there was an exact 50/50 split between Part 1 circ winners and losers, 53 of this week's 83 titles with comparable sub sales (56.6%) were up; a dozen-- including Life (+15.2%), Garden Design (+31.1%), and Men's Fitness (+98.5%)-- had double-digit sub growth, while Maxim posted triple figures across the board. Sub-wise, things could very quickly get worse, of course; in his just-released "CircTrack 1999" for instance, pundit Dan Capell again warns that, with response rates continuing to slip, publishers need to shake their nearly 25% reliance on direct mail to build new sub sales. For now, though, many publishers can take heart in these sub results.
With some notable exceptions (Maxim (+163.4%)/Playboy (+44.6%)/Marie Claire (+22.2%)/ InStyle (+14.7%)), things went less benignly at the newsstand, where threats of retailer pressure for better issue sell-through rates could exile some weaklings. Forty- seven titles--more than half of this week's group--lost ground on the newsstand. Continuing pundit insistence that cover prices will have to head north was borne out, with nearly a third of Part 1 books raising rates--and, usually, losing single-copy business (but not the implacable IS). Only Cosmopolitan (+14.0% single copy/+11.5% total circ) cut price, to $2.95 from $3.50--a neat circ-building strategy that surely takes some of the sting out of losing former editor-in- chief Bonnie Fuller to Glamour (+7.1% single copy/-0.1% total circ) last summer.
In light of Audit Bureau of Circulations Fas-Fax results released last week, the dire effects of plummeting direct mail response rates on magazine subscription sales are either overrated or haven't fully hit home yet. With the exception of certain categories in this week's group (e.g., general editorial and newsweeklies), publishers looking for deep declines in sub sales won't necessarily find the end of the world in these figures. Although there was an exact 50/50 split between Part 1 circ winners and losers, 53 of this week's 83 titles with comparable sub sales (56.6%) were up; a dozen-- including Life (+15.2%), Garden Design (+31.1%), and Men's Fitness (+98.5%)-- had double-digit sub growth, while Maxim posted triple figures across the board. Sub-wise, things could very quickly get worse, of course; in his just-released "CircTrack 1999" for instance, pundit Dan Capell again warns that, with response rates continuing to slip, publishers need to shake their nearly 25% reliance on direct mail to build new sub sales. For now, though, many publishers can take heart in these sub results.
With some notable exceptions (Maxim (+163.4%)/Playboy (+44.6%)/Marie Claire (+22.2%)/ InStyle (+14.7%)), things went less benignly at the newsstand, where threats of retailer pressure for better issue sell-through rates could exile some weaklings. Forty- seven titles--more than half of this week's group--lost ground on the newsstand. Continuing pundit insistence that cover prices will have to head north was borne out, with nearly a third of Part 1 books raising rates--and, usually, losing single-copy business (but not the implacable IS). Only Cosmopolitan (+14.0% single copy/+11.5% total circ) cut price, to $2.95 from $3.50--a neat circ-building strategy that surely takes some of the sting out of losing former editor-in- chief Bonnie Fuller to Glamour (+7.1% single copy/-0.1% total circ) last summer.
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