No
wonder ACP Magazines shook up management at Australian Women’s Weekly
earlier this year, changing editors and then pushing through a $3 million
re-design that will emerge next month. Circulation figures for the ACP profit giant show that
in the six months to June, it lost 30,700 copies, more than a thousand copies a
week.

That news
took the gloss off good performances by Cleo and Cosmo, which starred for the
group. The
Weekly’s circulation at the end of June totalled
640,136, compared with 670,826 at the end of 2004 and more than 680,000 a year
ago: a very bad result. The drop over the year was 6.2%.

It was
a marginally better performance at Woman’s Day, the other ACP giant, with a 0.1%
rise in circulation in the first half of 2005, but a one per cent fall in the 12
month period to June.

The
news at rival Pacific Magazines, owned by the Seven Network, wasn’t bright either. While
New Idea saw a rise of 0.1% in the first half of this year and 0.3% in the year,
sales of That’s Life and Family Circle, two of the other women’s titles at Pacific,
fell 1.5% and 8.4% this year and 4% and 12.7% over the 12 months to
June.

Pacific’s teen/tweenies
titles, Girlfriend, K-Zone, Total Girl and TV Hits had mixed fortunes.
Girlfriend was up 8% and 8.5% for the six and 12 month
periods. But
sales of the other three all fell, with K-Zone plunging 27.6% in the year to
June, and 13.6% in the first months of this year.

ACP’s new Madison magazine had
sales of 90,000 (a nice round publisher’s “estimate”) which pushed up ACP sales
overall and for its sector. The
finance and business sector saw ACP’s Bulletin lose
more ground, with sales down 2.4% so far in 2005 and 13.2% for the year to June.
Sales
were put at 60,542.

Fairfax’s BRW fell 2% and 8% respectively, despite the good
economy, stockmarket and resources boom.
Fairfax
Business Media also confused by not providing figures for Personal Investor,
which is being closed, but revealing that the other mag being shut, Shares, experienced
a 2% growth in sales this year to just over 60,000. A good result as it reduced
the drop over the year to only 1.1%. That
performance confirmed reports of confusion and unhappiness from within the
magazine at the decision by Fairfax Business Media boss, Michael Gill to rationalise the magazines without an adequate
explanation.

Time
magazine’s sales fell 9.2% in the first six months of 2005 and 11.2% over the
year, despite some big news stories.

ACP’s Money fell 3.1% to just over
48,500 and 8.8% for the year. Is ACP keeping it alive
in case Nine manages to revitalise the TV program that
spawned the magazine? Certainly without the cross promotion, Money is hurting.
But then the cross promotion of The Bulletin with Business Sunday at Nine (and
to a lesser extent Sunday), has failed to stop the sales drop at the magazine so
far this year.

ACP’s other tie-in, Burke’s
Backyard magazine, which is sold in conjunction with Don Burke’s company, CTC,
experienced a massive 20.9% drop in circulation this year and 21.2% over the
year to June. Sales
dropped this year from 118,000 a month to 93,371 without the promotion of
Burke’s TV program on Friday nights at Nine.

Meanwhile, Pacific’s competitor in this area, Better Homes and
Gardens, also took a pounding this year, even with a TV program to cross promote it.
Better Homes experienced a 6.1% circulation fall in 2005, which offset a rise in
the last half of 2004. That
left sales over the year to June up 3.4%, which will please
Seven. But the
fall this year, despite rival Burke’s Backyard being no longer on television, will be the real concern. Better Homes lost 17,000 copies in
the first six of 2005, or more than 600 a week. So much
for the rationale of cross promotion!

Despite
the easing sales of the Weekly and the less than stellar improvement at Woman’s
Day, ACP’s titles, Cleo, Cosmo and Shop til You Drop starred with good gains in the first six months
of 2005 and in the 12 months to the same month. Cleo
sales grew 1.2% and 2.8%, Cosmo, 5.1% and 10.2% respectively, Shop til You Drop saw a 14.8% and 29.9% rise in sales. Emap’s New Woman also grew strongly
in the category with a 5.1% rise this year and more than 11% in the 12 months to
June.