Data and Trends

Consumer magazines
Business and professional media
Customer magazines

Consumer magazines

Over the last 10 years, in real-terms, reader expenditure has soared by 31 per cent while ad expenditure has increased by over 25 per cent.

Since 1996:

Consumers spend £708m more each year on magazines, an increase of 31 per cent in real-terms. ¹
In 2005 consumer expenditure on magazines passed was £2,157m.¹
Ad expenditure has increased from £583m in 1996 to £827m in 2005 - an increase of 42 per cent (25 per cent in real-terms).¹
The number of consumer magazines published has increased by 45 per cent to 3,366 in 2005.³
Total expenditure (consumer and advertiser) on consumer magazines reached £2.98bn in 2005, a rise of 49 per cent over the last decade (29 per cent in real-terms).¹

Did you know

Since 2000 there has been continuous year on year growth in both consumer expenditure on magazines and the number of copies sold.¹
Consumer magazines take approximately 6.2 per cent of total main-media advertising expenditure, around 59 per cent more than Radio.¹
Some 77.4 per cent of adults read a consumer magazine (measured by NRS). ⁹
71.8 per cent of men read a consumer magazine (measured by NRS), 36 per cent more than read a national daily newspaper. ⁹
Some 82 per cent of women read a consumer magazine (measured by NRS). ⁹
The magazine market is driven by a relentless churn of new titles.
The average pre-tax profit margin for periodical publishers is 11 per cent.²

Elsewhere in the data and trends section you can find information on:

Business and professional magazines

The business information market is dominated by business and professional magazines, newspapers, journals, directories and other print on paper products, but the ways in which information is delivered are changing.

Over the last 10 years we have seen business magazines become the focal point of the huge - more than £13.7bn - and booming business communications market place. In-depth information on the business and professional publishing sector is available from PPA's business and professional marketing site, www.professionalmedia.info.

There are 5,108 business and professional magazines published in the UK by some 700 companies.
Business and professional magazines and journals generate more than £3.3bn in revenue.
Eighty seven per cent of decision makers use business and professional publications regularly for work purposes, more than any other medium.
Seventy one per cent of them see them as essential reading.
New media products and services account for over £1bn.
Display advertising accounts for 56 per cent of advertising in business and professional magazines, while the remaining 44 per cent comes from classified advertising.

Customer magazines

Customer magazines are titles produced under contract for companies and distributed free, or offered for sale to customers. In-depth information on from the Association of Publishing Agencies (APA) website, www.apa.co.uk

The total value of the customer magazine sector is more than £366m.7
Since 1995 industry turnover has risen almost 127 per cent.7
They have become one of the most well known and accepted loyalty tools.
Editorial and design quality has improved significantly over the past 10 years.
More are beginning to be distributed by newstand and retail outlets.
However, the majority (72 per cent), are still mailed with the remainder distributed through client outlets.
Many customer magazines take third party advertising, to offset cost.
Contract publishers have successfully broadened operations to embrace the lucrative area of new media, including the provision of content for websites, emails, satellite, digital and interactive TV.

Sources:

1. Advertising Association 2006
2. Business Ratio Report, The Prospect Shop
3. British Rate and Data (BRAD) 2006
4. BJM/PPA business magazine research 2000
5. PPA - The UK business-to-business industry
6. PPA - Business-to-business media: Opportunities for growth II
7. Mintel - Special report into contract publishing
8. BIF/DTI - Connecting business 2001
9. National Readership Survey (NRS) 2005
10. Professional Media:Connecting Business 2005