Restructures among the big publishers have been fairly common in recent times and, following Bauer’s purchase of the NZ Magazines portfolio, APN has embarked on another one, with its Pacific Magazines titles New Idea, Girlfriend and That’s Life now trading alongside the New Zealand Herald’s Newspaper Inserted Magazine (NIMs) portfolio.
Browsing: NZ Magazines
Asahi is looking to the future with its latest billboard, but Mitsubishi has been dwelling on the past with its Mirage campaign and NZ Woman’s Weekly subscribers were transported back in time in this week’s issue with a magazine cover from 1985 and an old Mirage ad on the back.
APN’s NZ Magazines has embraced the freemium model with the launch of a new responsive design website for the New Zealand Listener that combines free and paid content and enables subscribers to read the magazine on any device.
The quarterly number fest that is the Nielsen CMI Readership and Audit Bureau of Circulation data has been released, and while only a few magazine titles bucked the general downward trend in paid circulation, a majority of titles experienced readership increases, making it the third consecutive survey showing an improvement in total readership.
It’s a rather interesting period in the history of magazines and, despite the prevailing belief that shiny new digital toys are killing off paper, the latest readership and circulation numbers have once again showed the market is still in fairly good health in New Zealand.
It’s the night the magazine industry comes together to, as ACP head honcho Paul Dykzeul might say, indulge in a bit of gratuitous back patting. Or, as the MPA might say, reward the publications, publishers, editors, designers, sales folk and contributors who toil away on their various titles. And it was Good and Cuisine’s Sarah Nicholson that reigned supreme on the night, winning the top magazine and editor of the year prizes respectively.
The latest magazine circulation and readership figures came out last week, replete with a few significant changes to the research methodology and mostly downward-trending numbers. But, as ex Saatchi & Saatchi big wig and current Assignment Group don Peter Cullinane discussed at the Nielsen Innovation Seminar this week, magazines still have a very good story to tell because they have higher levels of engagement than other mediums, something a few publishers are trying to tap into with recent changes to their products.
It’s that time again, a time when publishers weep, gloat or possibly just say ‘meh’ and get on with it as the ABC circulation and Nielsen’s Magazine Comparatives Q2 2010 – Q2 2011 readership results are released. And while the market appears to have stabilised after a fairly rough period, there are some interesting, some might say counter-intuitive trends on display in the yearly comparisons, with some significant disparities between circulation and readership for some titles and publishers.
It’s been a fairly interesting period for the ladies mags recently. The old battle between ACP’s Woman’s Day and NZ Magazine’s Woman’s Weekly was spiced up considerably after a few big editorial switcheroos and a hearty debate about the pros and cons of brands signing exclusive deals with publishers. Now there’s even more excitement, with Woman’s Weekly undergoing its biggest change in more than a decade.
The weekly gossip mags haven’t had too much to celebrate recently in terms of readership. But there’s been no shortage of excitement in the rather fluid editorial ranks, with Sido Kitchin and Fiona Fraser moving from APN’s Women’s Weekly to ACP’s Woman’s Day and Sarah Stuart being brought in to replace Kitchin. Now there’s been another big shift, with Hayley McLarin deciding to step down as editor of New Idea magazine after six years at the helm for a role as communications director at CureKids.
The judges have judged and 140 entries from 42 titles and 22 different companies are in the running for a Magazine Award on 23 June at the Pullman Hotel.
The launch of the iPad and the expected ‘tablet revolution’ has put some wind in the sails of publishers who have been beaten down by the internet. But as everyone goes gaga over the new technology, it’s easy to forget that good old-fashioned paper-based magazines are still putting up a very good fight, with the most obvious trend from Nielsen’s latest readership figures and Audit Bureau of Circulation numbers being that Kiwi consumers are still willing to pay for good-quality specialist magazines.
Pacific Magazines’ slogan is “we create magazines people love”. But APN News & Media will soon be creating at least three of the core titles those people love, after New Zealand Magazines acquired the licence to publish the weeklies New Idea and That’s Life, and the monthly Girlfriend.