The ABC still talks about custom magazines, magazines published on behalf of brands or organisations, even as the companies producing these magazines now prefer to talk about content marketing, and refer to themselves as content marketers rather than publishers.
For the ABC period October 2012 to December 2012 (ABC Q4 2012), the custom magazine category saw a significant decline as the total number of magazines circulated (per issue) falling to 12,704,431 from 13,416,345. This was primarily because two of the cellular giants pulled the plug on their custom titles. Vodacom discontinued Vodacom Now! in print (circ 866,090) – it continues to be published online – as did Cell C with its namesake title (circ 126,446). Clicks sheared nearly 200 000 copies from its club magazine. Dish Commercial (circ 160,424) also closed.
The biggest circulating custom magazines for Q4 2012 were:
- DSTV Premium & Skottel (formerly Dish Premium) (M) 1,607,527 (up from 1,390,045 in Q4 – New Media *corrected March 14
- DSTV Compact (formerly Dish Compact) (M) 1,258,629 (up from 1,088,982) – New Media *corrected March 14
- Foschini Retail Group Club Magazine (M) 1,016,178 (up from 1,051,369) – Highbury Safika Media
- Discovery (3xA) 987,557 (down from 1,061,217) – John Brown Publishing
- Jet Club (10xA) 863,676 (down from 953,224) – The Publishing Partnership
- Edgars Club (M) 835,474 (down from 846,584) – John Brown Publishing
- Click Club Card (AltM) 501,094 (down significantly from 706,136) – The Publishing Partnership
- Woolworths W (3xA) 447,380 – New Media
- Lewis Stores Club Magazine (AltM) 433,679 (down from 486,435) – New Highway Publishing
- JD Group Club Magazines A (M) 352,619 (down from 369,576) – Quantum Publishers
- RCS Lifestyle (Q)350,000 (up from 343,500) – The Publishing Partnership
Wild (Q) from Tip Publishing for Wild Card programme fell significantly to 57,407 from 72,145. Reality (Q), published by Ramsay Media for Sanlam, grew significantly to 177,279 from 110,000. Foschini Balanced Life (M) upped its circulation to 58,049 from 25,295. The ABC certificate for Club X (M) shows it grew to 227,754 from 131,170 – except it didn’t. A follow up notice revised it back down to 151 836 (hmmm Highbury Safika Media). Ackermans Club (New Media) grew to 96,712 from 68,503.
Highest single copy sales* – so over the counter sales basically – was achieved by Fresh Living (John Brown Publishing for PicknPay) selling 56,416 copies of its total 71,760 circulation. TASTE (New Media for Woolworths) sold 24,764 copies from its total circulation of 28,538. Single copy sales across all titles totalled 99,720 out of the 12,704,431 magazines circulated.
Individual paid for subscriptions stood at 1,977,177 (some retailers claim to ‘charge’ loyalty/account members to receive their magazines). So the Foschini Retail Group Club Magazine claims 1,003,932 individuals paid 50% of the R17.95 ‘retail’ price to receive its magazine (single copy sales – nil).
Of the 12,704,431 magazines put into circulation, 10,504,122 were sent out free of charge, 2,200,309 is claimed to have been paid for (99,720 of those over the counter).
*Excludes diaries
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