Audience Development Magazine

Mondo Times editors    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 10:45pm on Friday, February 13th, 2009

February 9, 2009: Audience Development magazine reported that newsstand sales of consumer magazines dropped sharply in the second half of 2008:

"...the recently released second-half 2008 ABC and BPA newsstand sales data revealed (based on a preliminary analysis) that the unit sales of audited publications fell a devastating 14.9 percent and the revenue declined a record 6.7 percent.

The sales slide in the second half of last year affected nearly every publisher and every magazine category. However, the adverse effect was most pronounced among checkout titles. Checkout sales, which account for about 70% of the newsstand revenue of audited publications, drive the newsstand market. Within the checkout sector the sales of celebrity titles have the greatest influence. Over the last 5 or 6 years celebrity titles have led a newsstand sales surge. But the celebrity sales bubble may be ready to burst. In the second half of last year the unit sales of the six major celebrity titles (People, US, In Touch, Star, OK!, and Life & Style) declined 20.3 percent, and experienced its first ever revenue fall—6.9 percent."