A “huge” uplift in subscriptions and “flying” digital traffic means Immediate Media is emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic with a “spring in our step,” according to the company’s boss, Tom Bureau.
The magazine publisher closed 12 titles and cut 113 jobs last summer. But Bureau said the aim had been to find the “right structure” for the business and that its outlook was subsequently re-forecast to be “substantially better” by the end of the third quarter of 2020.
“We feel quite excited about where we’ve got to and it gives us the opportunity to ponder where we invest next,” Bureau said.
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Magazine ABCs 2020: How the men s, tech, entertainment and women s sectors fared
By comparison women’s magazines saw an average circulation decline of 8%, as did TV titles.
Timeline
However most publishers celebrated subscriptions and digital growth offsetting much of the loss in newsstand sales during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The two biggest paid-for magazines in the UK, excluding branded National Trust and supermarket titles, are Bauer’s TV Choice with a circulation of 1,041,826 which is down 5% year-on-year, and Future’s What’s On TV, down 10% to 689,427.
Bauer, whose other biggest titles are Take A Break (down 11% to 365,869) and Yours (177,121), said one in five of its titles saw year-on-year growth in the second half of 2020 despite the extraordinary times.
Current affairs and home titles prosper in Covid hit mag ABCs Richard Stuart-Turner Tuesday, February 16, 2021
A number of titles covering the news and current affairs and home and garden sectors bucked a general downward trend in a Covid-19 hit market according to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) consumer magazine reports.
A number of current affairs and home titles performed well in 2020
The newly released data, which covered the final six months of 2020 – though some titles reported for the full-year – suggested a hankering for information and analysis on the pandemic.
The Big Issue experienced growth of 13% year-on-year to 47,973 copies and
Immediate Media celebrates subs landmark Tuesday, February 16, 2021
Immediate Media’s subscriber base has passed the 1m landmark after readers turned to its trusted and special interest magazine brands during the pandemic.
Radio Times: subscribers up 9% at more than 2.64m
In the latest set of ABC circulation figures the group posted 9% growth across its portfolio, with subscriptions up by 14% to just under 1.02m year on year.
Print subscription volumes grew by 17% in 2020.
“These continue to grow with the file approaching 1.2m as of January 2021,” the publisher stated.
Immediate Media’s two main print suppliers are Walstead Group and William Gibbons.
Immediate Media CEO Tom Bureau said the figures demonstrated the “enduring appeal” of the group’s brands, “both in print and digital”.