August 13, 2009

Mag ABCs: Movie titles up but music titles slump further

A blockbuster packed six months in film has seen movie titles Empire and Total Film both post an increase in circulation figures.

Batman, Terminator, Harry Potter and Transformer sequels all released in the last six months must have contributed somewhat to a 3.6 per cent rise to 194,016 for Empire and a 0.6 per cent rise to 85,031 for Total Film.

Bauer’s Empire scored a massive exclusive for its June issue, with legendary director Steven Spielberg guest editing the magazine’s 20th anniversary edition.

The music sector isn’t such a happy place, with the overall sector dropping 9.5 per cent and only two titles showing a year on year increase.

Classic Rock magazine shot up 5.5 per cent year on year to 70,301, all of those actively purchased, and free bi-monthly title The Fly saw an increase of 2.4 per cent to 107,771.

Both Bauer’s rock monthlies, Q and Mojo, dropped, down 11.5 per cent to 100,172 and 8.1 per cent to 97,722 respectively.

IPC’s monthly Uncut was worst of in the monthly sector, down 12 per cent to 76,526.

Kerrang remained ahead of NME in the battle of the weeklies, but both titles saw dramatic drop in sales. Kerrang was down 28.3 per cent year on year to 43,253 and NME down 27.2 per cent to 40,948.

Film and music magazine ABCs for first half of 2009 (year-on-year)

Music

The Fly – 107,771 (2.4%)

Q – 100,172 (-11.5%)

Mojo – 97,722 (-8.1%)

Uncut – 76,526 (-12.0%)

Classic Rock – 70,301 (5.5%)

Metal Hammer – 46,004 (-5.2%)

Kerrang! – 43,253 (-28.3%)

New Musical Express – 40,948 (-27.2%)

Film

Empire – 194,016 (3.6%)