Magazines held up strongly in the latest ABC audits and Nielsen readership data, with at least 50% of titles posting good increases in circulation and/or readership.

Total magazine circulation was up 2% over the previous year, and the Nielsen research shows more people are reading magazines than ever before.

In this report, we are showing only those titles that have posted increases in circulation or readership, or both. To browse the results for all titles, go to the earlier item on this page.

The main magazine groups all reported good results:

NZ Magazines reported strong growth with NZ Woman’s Weekly, New Idea, That’s Life, Creme, the Listener, Girlfriend and Simply You.

ACP Magazines & Trader Group saw strong growth in the Australian Women’s Weekly, Woman’s Day, Next, Metro, North & South, Fashion Quarterly, HiaOra, Home NZ, Your Home & Garden, and Good Health Magazine. And ACP’s Trader Group of titles also produced good results for Farm Trader, Deals on Wheels, Motorcycle Trader, NZ Motorhomes Caravans & Destinations.

Fairfax Magazines found growth in TV Guide, Cuisine, NZ Life & Leisure, NZ House & Garden, NZ Autocar, NZ Trucking, NZ Fishing News, NZ Lifestyle Block and Computerworld.

Tangible titles on the rise were Dish, Good, NZ Rugby World, NZ Weddings, NZ Fishing World and Habitat.

Mediaweb enjoyed success with AdMedia & Fastline, FMCG, Hospitality, NZ Management and Onfilm.

The newspaper results were more muted with the numbers down by very small margins, and few rises – notable among these was the Dominion Post which defied the trend by posting increased circulation, and the Herald on Sunday which posted both circulation and readership gains.

THE DATA

Because magazines commenced the new, annualised quarterly survey process six months later than newspapers, the circulation data published here relates to a full 12-month period (30 June 2011to 30 June 2012) while the readership data compares data for a full year (11 July 2011 to 12 June 2012)

With Q2 2012 (10 April 2012 to 11 June 2012).

This is not an ideal comparison, so readers should make the allowance.

THE WINNERS

Magazines with increased circulations: Straight Furrow, NZ Farmers Weekly, Computerworld, Dairy News, AdMedia & Fastline, AgTrader, Creme, DEMM, FMCG, Healthy Food Guide, Hospitality, M2, Mindfood, Motor Equipment News, NZ Gardener, NZ Performance Car, NZ Trucking, North & South, NZ $WD, NZ Dairy Exporter, NZ House & Garden, NZ Management, NZ Rugby World, Onfilm, Readers Digest, Your Home & Garden, Build, CIO, Dish, Education Review, Good, Home NZ, Idealog, INsite, Life & Leisure, NZ Marketing, Real, The Shed, Tourism Business, Young Country, Bride & Groom, Fashion Quarterly, Fish & Game, Principals Today, Tearaway, AA Directions.

Magazines with increased readership: Lucky Break, New Idea, NW Magazine, NZ Woman’s Weekly. Rugby News, Woman’s Day, Computerworld, Australian Women’s Weekly NZ, Cleo, Cosmopolitan, Creme, Deals On Wheels, Farm Trader, Girlfriend, Healthy Food Guide, KiaOra, Metro, Mindfood, Motorcycle Trader, Next, NZ Autocar, NZ Fishing News, NZ Lifestyle Block, NZ Performance Car, NZ Rugby World, NZ Trucking, PC World, Readers Digest, Recipes+, Sky Sport The Magazine, SkyWatch, Top Gear NZ, Trade-A-Boat, Your Home & Garden, Cuisine.

Newspapers with increased readership: Dominion Post, Waikato Times, Herald on Sunday, Sunday News (Auckland region only), Dairy News.

Newspapers with increased circulation: Oamaru Mail, Wanganui Chronicle, Herald on Sunday, Whakatane Beacon.

And here’s the publisher releases …

New figures released today show how much New Zealanders love reading magazines. The latest round of numbers from ABC Circulation (to 30th June 2012) and Nielsen CMI Readership (Q3 2011 – Q2 2012) will be released today, showing growth and increased engagement for magazines.

Total circulation was up 2% over the year prior, but the great news is it’s not just about volume. Consumers spend considerable amounts of time reading magazines and are heavily influenced by the messages they see there, with significant conversion to research and purchase.

Nielsen’s recently revised CMI database gives the insights behind the numbers:

• There’s more of us reading more magazines
• 73,000 more than last year –new readers could fill Eden Park almost 1.5 times.
• We’re now reading 4.9 magazines within the issue period compared to 4.6 a year ago
• If you pay for it, you spend more time reading it
• Average time spent reading is 41 minutes, increasing to 67 minutes for primary magazine readers
• Readership of women’s weeklies as big as Auckland and time spent reading far more than it takes to drink a cup of coffee
• Women’s weekly titles grew to 1.3 million readers each week (Auckland residential pop 1.377 million).
• Average time spent immersed was a massive 84 minutes. Women 25-54 spent even longer: 96 or an hour and a half!
• We love sport, especially if it’s rugby
• Sports titles are up 15.4% from last year to 1.16 million readers
• Rugby titles have led the way, increasing 46.4%
• Read magazines then buy stuff
• More than half of Women 25-54 and Men 25-54 will buy something after seeing it in their magazines.
• 70% of Homeowners 25-54 will go to a website after reading a magazine for more information

Katrina Horton, Commercial Director of the Magazine Publishers Association says: “It’s no surprise that engagement levels by readers of magazines are so high. Intuitively, we have known this for some time and it’s great to see our assumptions quantified. Very few media can compete with the combination of immersing content, visual splendor and emotional connection that magazines continue to offer readers. This research now proves there’s a tangible benefit to advertisers.”

These stories are just the tip of the iceberg. There’s more good news for many other sectors and many other consumer target groups, all available within Nielsen’s CMI.

The latest readership results out today reveal Farm Trader magazine has increased year-on-year by a significant 19.5 per cent. Farm Trader now boasts a readership of 98,000 readers every month. This makes it the number one monthly title in the NZ Rural category.

Farm Trader editor and editorial group manager Rachel Pratt believes the increase in readership has a lot to do with the magazines unique place in the agricultural market and commitment to its individuality.

“Agricultural media is very competitive, particularly for print and magazines. However Farm Trader, is proud to stand apart from the others – instead of trying to be everything to everybody, we have focused on the farm machinery and equipment sector. Our machinery tests are unique to New Zealand, informative and also objective.”

Deals on Wheels magazine comes a close second for its growth year on year, increasing by an impressive 17.2 per cent and its third consecutive readership increase.

Deals on Wheels editor Randolph Covich says, “The magazine has evolved a lot over the last twelve months and readers are re-discovering a fresh new look. Our aim is to deliver informative and interesting articles. The team here is pleased to know that the demographic are making us their magazine of choice.”

Another stand-out for the group was Motorcycle Trader with an impressive year- on- year growth of 12.7 per cent. The magazine now reaches 89,000 motorcycle enthusiasts. NZ Motorhomes, Caravans, Destinations also showed impressive results, up 10 per cent since the last release to 66,000.

Trade-A-Boat has had two consecutive June increases – up 5.5 per cent year-on-year.

Farm Trader 98,000, NZ Lifestyle Block 87,000, Hawkes Bay Country Scene 14,000, Central Districts Farmer 43,000

Great news for magazines! New Zealanders’ love affair with magazines continues its powerful growth according to the latest Nielsen survey.

And it is the lure of the ideal lifestyle and a passion for hobbies and interests that is drawing in an increasing number of readers.  Latest consumer research shows that more than 2 million New Zealanders read a magazine published by lifestyle publishing giant Fairfax Media in the last year – up significantly from 1.9 million readers 12 months ago.

It is the better-off households leading the way in the growth of magazines. Fairfax Magazines, with its stable of premium titles, has increased its reach with households earning over $100,000 by a whopping 126,000 readers in just a year.

“Kiwis love to escape into beautiful and informative magazines and share the experience with friends and family, says Fairfax Magazines general manager Lynley Belton.

“The tactile experience of sitting down with a favourite magazine can not be replaced and this is why our titles are doing so well.”

Consistent top performers leading this growth are TV Guide, Cuisine, NZ Life & Leisure, NZ House & Garden, NZ Autocar, NZ Trucking, NZ Fishing News, NZ Lifestyle Block and Computerworld.

TV Guide continues to be the country’s most read and highest selling magazine reaching 609,000 people.

The combined reach of Cuisine, NZ Life & Leisure and NZ House & Garden is now more than 800,000 unique New Zealanders which demonstrates the power of just three premium titles. More broadly, it also illustrates the strength in magazine readership.

Food continues to be a preoccupation with New Zealanders and market leader Cuisine, which has already taught a couple of generations to be foodies, maintains powerful growth by increasing its readership to 438,000. This is up by 9.8% on the previous 12 month period.  Much newer on the block but now with a strong, and rapidly growing, following NZ Life & Leisure had a 17.6% increase (to 140,000) and the much-loved home-owners’ bible, NZ House & Garden easily dominates the Home category with well over half a million regular readers.

And it is not just women who are increasingly reading magazines. Fairfax Magazines reaches more New Zealand men than any other publisher with 1 million male readers – of increase of nearly five percent in the past year.

NZ Autocar’s readership is up 12+ % (to 183,000), NZ Trucking up 13.7% (108,000), NZ Fishing News up 8.4% (322,000) and NZ Lifestyle Block has had a massive increase of 20+% to 87,000 readers. Even digitally-focussed titles are showing the power of print:  Computerworld up 7.1% on readership with 45,000 readers and PC World with 121,000 readers also contribute to that figure.

“While publishing is rapidly evolving, at its core remains the fact that having the best people, producing relevant, quality content will ensure that New Zealanders continue to respond. We all want something informative, aspirational or simply an enjoyable dash of escapism in our everyday lives,” says Belton.

Remember 1993? When Laurie Mains was coach of the All Blacks and Les Mills was Mayor of Auckland City? That was the last time iconic brand The Australian Women’s Weekly had a readership as high as today at 777,000. This represents an incredible 17 per cent year-on-year increase, or 113,000 new readers available to advertisers. It is the largest readership increase of any magazine and confirms the brand as the undisputed number-one read and sold monthly newsstand magazine. This is one of a run of stellar circulation and readership performances from market-leader ACP Magazines.

The country’s most-read newsstand magazine, Woman’s Day continues to lead the women’s weekly market in every key metric from circulation to readership to advertising share. In the past year it has grown readership by 66,000 New Zealanders to 847,000 readers and also posted a circulation gain while key competitors fell.

ACP Magazines’ third-largest title, NEXT magazine continues to resonate with smart, successful and stylish women with a readership of 359,000, up 11,000 on the same time a year ago.

Metro and North & South magazines are proving that good journalism continues to resonate with the country’s more affluent and influential readers. Audited circulation for North & South rose to 26,095, up 2.4 per cent on June last year, while Metro experienced its fifth consecutive readership increase to 161,000, up 12.6 per cent, and circulation is stable.

Other great performances came from the premium set:

• Home NZ has had its second consecutive circulation increase to 11,862. It is the dominant market leader with a paid circulation that is two and a half times that of its nearest home-design competitor. Readership also is starting to reflect these gains with a recovery following the negative effects of masthead changes.
• KiaOra magazine is flying high with a record-breaking 304,000 readers.
• Fashion Quarterly increased readership, up 8.4 per cent year on year to 245,000, and circulation edged ahead to 24,572.
• our Home and Garden magazine has hit an all-time readership high of 329,000. This huge 11.9 per cent growth on last year’s numbers is igniting the category and outperforms its nearest competitor NZ House & Garden.
• NZ Good Health magazine enjoying one of the most rapid rises in readership audiences since its launch two years ago, reaching 163,000 health-conscious readers.
• CLEO, New Zealand’s life-stylist for young women, is up 5.1 per cent in readership year on year to 145,000.

CEO Paul Dykzeul says: “Magazines remain hugely influential in this country and continue to show they are much loved by New Zealanders. Our magazines show that more and more people are deeply engaged with our content and choose not only to endorse magazines by purchasing copies every day but also passing on magazines to other readers. This is an exciting and challenging time for all media but at ACP we feel very optimistic about the future.”

ACP Magazines measured titles include the following:

Woman’s Day, The Australian Women’s Weekly, Next, North & South, Deals on Wheels, Farm Trader, NZ Motorcycle Trader & News, NZ Motorhomes, Caravans & Destinations, Trade-A-Boat, Metro, KiaOra, NW, Lucky Break, Fashion Quarterly, CLEO, HOME New Zealand, Little Treasures, Your Home & Garden, Taste, FHM and Top Gear NZ, recipes+.

About ACP Media ACP Media is New Zealand’s leading magazine publisher. The company’s ACP Magazines division publishes some of the country’s most popular magazines, including Woman’s Day, The Australian Women’s Weekly, Next, Taste, Metro and North & South. ACP Media’s Property Magazines division publishes a range of real estate advertising titles under the Property Press umbrella. ACP Media operates a national distribution network through its division Netlink Distribution Company, which distributes publications to retailers across the country. ACP Media is a subsidiary of ACP Magazines Limited in Australia, a division of PBL Media Limited. www.acpmedia.co.nz.

The New Zealand Magazines portfolio has increased its reach by 2% on last year, with year on year growth experienced for each of our weekly women’s titles.

New Zealand Woman’s Weekly readership has increased 15,000 on last year, reaching 819,000 readers aged 10+. Digital growth has also been strong for the Weekly, with average monthly Unique Browsers (UBs) increasing by 44% in the 12-month period to June 2012, on the same period last year. New Idea and that’s Life! have also performed exceptionally well. New Idea’s readership has grown by 18,000 to 476,000, and that’s Life! has increased by 2,000 readers to 283,000.

The New Zealand Listener continues to lead the current affairs category with 277,000 readers and sets the standard in reader engagement with the average time spent reading the Listener growing by 5% to 65 minutes. This is, on average, 22 minutes longer than people are spending with its nearest competitor.

“The performance of our weeklies in a highly competitive category is extremely encouraging,” says CEO Sarah Sandley. “To have four of the top six best-selling weeklies in supermarkets, and to be commanding 45% market share according to the latest audited numbers, is a fantastic position to be in.”

New Zealand Magazines’ youth titles have built upon a strong and loyal reader base. Girlfriend engages with 188,000 readers, an increase of 19,000 on last year. Creme’s audience has grown across multiple platforms, with its print audience increasing by 12,000 readers to 161,000, and crememagazine.co.nz average monthly UBs up by 41% over the last 12 months.

The premium lifestyle titles performed well, with Simply You readers up 5.2% to 101,000 and Simply You Living up 9.8% on the previous release to 67,000 readers.

New Zealanders love affair with print continues

Fairfax Media reaches 84.4% of New Zealanders 15+

The latest Nielsen Consumer and Media Insights Survey results (Q3 11 – Q2 12) shows daily newspapers remain a crucial part of many New Zealanders’ days, with Fairfax Media metropolitan dailies in particular recording strong readership results. This proves that newspapers are alive and well in New Zealand.

Fairfax Media CEO Allen Williams says the latest quarter’s results are a resounding endorsement of the company’s publications and platforms. “These results follow on from the previous quarter’s strong results, putting paid to the often used throwaway comment predicting the demise of print. We’re really pleased to have such overall positive readership results across our brands, from print through to digital.”

Highlights:

• Metropolitan dailies performing well, with The Dominion Post up 4.3% year on year, and The Waikato Times recording an impressive 17.6% increase year on year (15+)
• Fairfax Media connects with 84.4% of all New Zealanders aged 15+ across its multi-media platforms, equivalent to 2.96 million New Zealanders.
• Stuff.co.nz monthly unique audience : 1,070,0002
• Stuff.co.nz monthly video views: 1,272,461 (+24.5% YOY)3
• Stuff.co.nz smartphone monthly unique visitors 110,830 (+110.3% YOY) on iPhone, and 372,276 unique visitors on Android (26 times more YOY)3
• Stuff.co.nz iPad monthly unique visitors 42,657(+140.0% YOY)3

Strong results for newspapers are mirrored by excellent results for our magazine stable. Overall, Fairfax Magazines reach 2.29 million New Zealanders aged 10+, up 2.1% year on year.

Hot on the heels of a stellar performance at the 2012 Magazine Awards, including the Supreme Editor Award for Sarah Nicholson, Cuisine’s readership is up 9.8% year on year. Other magazines readership results are also impressive:

• NZ Lifestyle Block is up 20.8% year on year
• NZ Autocar is up 12.3% year on year
• NZ Life & Leisure is up 17.6% year on year
• Fish & Game NZ is up 24.6% year on year

These strong results show that Fairfax Media’s brands provide New Zealanders with the news and information they want, allowing them to fully engage with their passions via its publications and platforms.