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Press Office - Press Releases
KEY IPC MEDIA BRANDS DELIVER STRONG PERFORMANCES IN LATEST ABCs
August 14, 2008
IPC Media today unveils its latest round of ABC figures, highlighting strong performances in competitive markets.
The latest ABC figures (January to June 2008) showcase sterling performances for pillar brands across all five IPC divisions, while pioneering IPC digital brands including www.housetohome.co.uk, www.nuts.co.uk, www.nme.com, www.whatsontv.co.uk, www.goodtoknow.co.uk and our latest launch www.look.co.uk continue to outperform expectations.
IPC chief executive Sylvia Auton says: Yet again IPC has delivered another great set of ABC results and once again IPC is comprehensively outperforming the market at newsstand across the weekly and monthly sectors in both volume and value.
We are using the brand strengths, insights and creativity for which IPC is renowned to extend our successful magazine business online. Today's superb ABCe results for NME, Nuts and Loaded are testament to this as are the hundreds of thousands of women regularly visiting www.goodtoknow.co.uk every month. Our latest launch www.look.co.uk is already well ahead of expectations. And partnerships like Nuts TV, NME TV and NME Radio underline IPC's continued commitment to our strategy of leveraging the power of IPC brands through strong multi-platform growth.
Highlights from this round of ABCs include:
Look consolidates its position as the UK's biggest-selling fashion title, with a superlative third ABC, up 0.5% on the period to 307,274. With sales in excess of 1.3 million copies every month, Look delivers almost £22million in annual retail sales value
woman&home delivers a superb performance: up 5% on the year to 336,888, with recent cover stars like Kylie and Madonna underlining the magazine's 'brand new attitude'
Nuts increases its share of the men's lifestyle market and continues its reign as the UK's biggest-selling men's magazine by annualised volume sales with an ABC of 250,061. Almost half of all men's lifestyle magazines sold at the UK newsstand are now copies of Nuts
IPC Southbank's homes portfolio continues to shine, with Country Homes & Interiors and Homes & Gardens both up on the period and the year. Meanwhile Ideal Home is up on the period and 25 Beautiful Homes is up on the year
Livingetc, Britain's biggest-selling modern homes title, delivers its highest ever ABC, up 8.5% on the year to 98,395
Essentials continues to benefit from its new look and reports an ABC of 100,214, up 6.5% period-on-period
Uncut delivers a year-on-year increase of 1.2% with a strong ABC of 86,925 increasing both its total market share and newsstand market share on the year
Golf Monthly delivers a superlative result, up 10% on the year growth which has seen an increase in newsstand market share to over 35%
TX fortnightly Soaplife is up 6.9% period-on-period, delivering an ABC of 109,493. It continues to be the number one fortnightly soap magazine.
Woman and Woman's Own both deliver superlative results and increased share in a sector which sees rivals Bella and Best both showing double digit decline on the year. Woman sees growth on the year to 370,289 while Woman's Own is down only 1.6% on the year to 339,138.
IPC Ignite
IPC Ignite, the men's and music division of IPC Media, delivers a resilient performance across its four brands in one of the most dynamic and competitive areas of UK media.
Ignite managing director Eric Fuller says: In tough markets Ignite brands continue to set the pace developing a broad range of must-have branded content across all platforms. And our print titles remain at the heart of that strategy.
Nuts, the biggest brand in men's media, increases its share of the total men's lifestyle market and continues its reign as the UK's biggest-selling men's magazine by volume sales. With an ABC of 250,061, the title is delivering annualised sales of over 12.2 million copies on the UK newsstands over 4 million more than Zoo and 9.7 million more than FHM.
Selling over 88,000 copies a week more than weekly rival Zoo, Nuts is the biggest men's title in the UK ranked by retail sales value worth in excess of £18.3million annually on the UK newsstand. Nuts is now worth 53% more than Zoo and 90% more than FHM in UK newsstand RSV.
Almost half of all men's lifestyle magazines* sold at the UK newsstand are now copies of Nuts.
Beyond print, the Nuts brand continues to grow exponentially and reach new audiences. The audited Nuts Group Product Report for June 2008 shows www.nuts.co.uk to have delivered an incredible ABCe, up 121% year-on-year to 1,398,243 unique users: that's 766,776 more users than June 2007's 631,467.
This outstanding performance has been driven by an expanded Nuts Video section, exclusive Nuts TV content and the launch of social networking platform MyNuts and makes Nuts.co.uk the fastest-growing men's lifestyle website in the UK.
Elsewhere, Nuts TV continues to deliver on its mission to entertain young men with original television content targeted at the interests of British men. A partnership with Turner Broadcasting Systems, the Nuts TV channel is available on Freeview Channel 42 and Sky Channel 207. And Nuts continues to develop its thriving mobile offering; to offer live Nuts club night tours throughout the UK; and to deliver major multi-platform commercial partnerships such as the 2008 WKD Nuts Football Awards.
IPC Ignite publishing director Jo Smalley says: The Nuts brand continues to expand across all platforms as we deliver finely tuned content to our growing male audience. Whether it's print, online, live events, mobile or TV, Nuts delivers an unparalleled total reach into the most-elusive and hardest to please audience there is young men.
Meanwhile, in a tough market, Loaded delivers an ABC of 95,371. Loaded maintains its position as the second largest men's monthly on the UK newsstand, selling 3,754 more copies than GQ and outselling Maxim by 47,094 copies the equivalent of 162% every month.
And www.loaded.co.uk delivers an ABCe for June 2008 up 51% year-on-year. The brand that set the pace for modern men's media, delivers a figure of 311,610 unique users for Loaded.co.uk, up by 104,658 from 206,952 in June 2007.
Loaded's annual Laftas event where the biggest names in comedy celebrate the very best in British humour, as voted for by the public plus Loaded's new University Debating Tour and mobile offering all demonstrate how the brand continues to innovate and creatively engage its audience.
Jo adds: Loaded's print performance is broadly in line with the UK newsstand market, and significantly outperforms Maxim by remaining true to its strong brand heritage, delivering the most colourful, characterful editorial content for men. And with its excellent ABCe, Loaded.co.uk continues to grow the overall Loaded audience online, reaching more than 300,000 unique users every month.
IPC Ignite managing director Eric Fuller adds: IPC Ignite continues to increase its share of annualised newsstand sales in the men's sector with more than 51% of combined sales. And between them the Nuts and Loaded websites reach well over 1.7 million users every month, underlining IPC Ignite's market leading position delivering to men across all platforms.
Meanwhile in the music sector, iconic rock weekly NME posts an ABC of 56,284, down on the period but gaining market share over rival weekly, Kerrang! NME's market share of 48.3% is its highest share of the weekly sector since the July-December 2005 ABC period. And within the overall rock sector (weeklies and monthlies combined), NME now accounts for 31% of all sales on UK newsstands.
Online, NME's Group Product Report shows an ABCe of 3,501,326 unique users for June 2008, up a massive 107% from 1,693,196 unique users in June 2007.
NME's portfolio of live events also continues to grow. This year's NME Awards in the UK, held at the O2, saw 15,000 music fans pack the Main Arena for NME's Big Gig, and the first ever NME Awards in the US saw an exclusive partnership with the world's leading social network, MySpace, to stream the Awards.
NME TV which launched in November 2007 in partnership with CSC Media continues to deliver with the passion, authority and attitude which make NME so uniquely powerful and trusted. And NME Radio the latest addition to the NME brand launched in June this year with huge support from NME.COM's audience as 3.5million votes were cast online to decide the first track played.
NME's ongoing multi-platform strategy means that the brand is going from strength to strength. In recognition, NME was named Consumer Media Brand of the Year at this year's PPA Awards, where judges applauded NME's unrivalled approach to brand development, setting the template for how a modern magazine brand can extend its reach and influence in a variety of ways and across a variety of mediums.
IPC Ignite publishing director Paul Cheal says: The music weeklies market is highly challenging amidst a sea change in how young music fans consume media, as illustrated by the fantastic year-on-year growth enjoyed by NME.COM. NME's print audience continues to be the most highly engaged, enthusiastic music fans on the planet - a unique audience in fact for advertisers. And the recent refresh work on NME has ensured that we continue to put the very best editorial product out to market at the same time as we evolve our multi-platform strategy.
NME is dedicated to making its unique content available wherever music fans choose to interact, be it print, radio, TV, mobile, online or events. As a result we estimate that the NME brand now reaches up to 1.5 million music fans a week.
Ignite music and movies monthly Uncut, which has maintained a clear focus on delivering a unique editorial mix of established artists and new music, has increased both its total market share and newsstand market share on the year. It delivers a strong ABC of 86,925, up 1.2% on the year in a sector which is down 5.4% on the year overall.
Uncut has also continued to develop its presence in the live music space, recently teamed up with Mean Fiddler to launch monthly Club Uncut nights at The Borderline in London and acted as the exclusive media partner for the Latitude festival for the third year.
Paul says: Uncut's performance has been aided by an innovative promotional strategy which has seen us offer added-value boxed issues celebrating artists such as John Lennon and David Bowie.
Eric adds: Ignite brands continue to reap the rewards of our multi-platform strategy in all the sectors where we operate. Our spectacular online growth and our recent acquisition of www.mousebreaker.com are the most tangible examples of our continued drive to reach our audiences whenever and wherever they are.
- Men's Lifestyle Market defined as Nuts, Loaded, Esquire, FHM, Arena, Maxim, GQ and Zoo
IPC Connect
The women's weeklies market remains the biggest category in magazine publishing. Total UK newsstand sales for the market averaged 8.7 million copies each week in the period, equating to annual copy sales of 440 million delivering £491.7m in retail sales value, up 5.1% on the year.
IPC Connect's share of the UK newsstand market is rock solid at 29.7%. The seven-strong Connect portfolio now sells 2.6 million copies at the UK newsstand and generates £122.2 in RSV.
IPC Connect managing director Evelyn Webster says: The women's weekly market remains the biggest, the most valuable and still the most hotly contested in magazine publishing. Our titles continue to outperform in their sectors and reap the benefits of our extensive redevelopment and investment strategy. And it's especially gratifying to see Look perform so well proof positive that truly innovative titles can still score major successes on the newsstand.
Launched in February 2007 and backed by an £18million investment, Look immediately established itself as the UK's biggest-selling fashion title. With its third ABC, the magazine consolidates that position, delivering an ABC of 307,274, up 0.5% on the previous period a fantastic result.
With sales in excess of 1.3 million copies every month, Look delivers £21.9million in annual RSV, ranking the title as the 10th highest revenue generating title on the UK newsstand.
Meanwhile, June saw the launch of www.look.co.uk showcasing the hottest fashion on the high street, updated daily. The site is already outperforming traffic expectations, with advertising support from clients such as Estée Lauder and Clinique.
Evelyn says: It takes a magazine of both style and substance to storm to the number one position at launch and then stay there and Look has both characteristics. Not only has it shaken up the newsstand, but with look.co.uk we have a website that delivers Look's unique tone and content to its fashion hungry audience on a daily basis. All credit to editor Ali Hall and her talented team.
In the mainstream weeklies category, Woman and Woman's Own both deliver superlative results.
Woman, under editor Jackie Hatton, delivers an ABC of 370,289, up 0.1% on the year an incredible performance compared to the women's weekly market as a whole. Meanwhile Woman's Own, under editor Karen Livermore, unveils an ABC of 339,138 on track to deliver growth and down only 1.6%. These results are all the more impressive as both titles saw cover price increases Woman to 90p and Woman's Own to 87p in the period, underlining their position as the premium brands in the mainstream sector.
Both titles are reaping the benefits of major redevelopment work under their respective editors. In February 2008 Woman unveiled a major new look and format, backed by a seven figure investment. New look Woman is the must-have weekly fix of hot showbiz exclusives, juicy TV insider gossip, compelling real life stories, body confident fashion and beauty and an up-to-the-minute lifestyle section. Woman delivers its best year-on-year ABC performance in 14 periods.
Woman's Own continues its trend in halving the year-on-year decline in sales for the third consecutive ABC period following its radical reinvention in April 2007. The redevelopment, backed by eight months of reader research, continues to connect with readers. It reflects their modern lives and delivers topics and people that fascinate them alongside health, shopping, fashion and stay-younger beauty advice. Woman's Own delivers its highest sector share for 23 ABC periods.
Combined, Woman and Woman's Own now outsell Bella and Best by 216,443 copies a week almost 90,000 copies more than this time last year. The titles continue to dominate the mainstream sector increasing UK newsstand market share to a combined 58.8% - up 4.2 percentage points on the year. This equates to annual combined RSV of £31.4million.
Evelyn adds: Woman and Woman's Own are huge brands, and their sterling performances relative to their rivals are true testament to the talent and dedication of their fantastic editorial teams.
In the hotly contested real life sector Connect's Chat and Pick Me Up continue to generate huge brand loyalty. Chat maintains its number two position at the UK newsstand, with an ABC of 489,682, down 4.3% on the year, while Pick Me Up maintains its fourth place with an ABC of 409,112, down 8.5% on the year.
Connect unveiled a new-look Chat in September last year under editor Gilly Sinclair, and in the context of double digit decline among some rivals, the magazine's resilient performance underlines its continued brand strength, seeing it gain share on the year, from 15.4% to 15.9%.
Meanwhile Pick Me Up, under editor June Smith-Shepherd, unveiled a major refresh last month. The result of an extensive research and development process, the new look Pick Me Up sees a larger format, a new glossy cover to showcase the gripping real life, a cleaner logo, refreshed layouts and new editorial franchises alongside ever-popular existing favourites. The design elements have been over-seen by IPC Connect group creative director Lottie Berridge, who was the launch creative director on IPC Connect sister title Look. The refresh is being supported by a TV, press and email campaign.
Evelyn says: Chat and Pick Me Up have huge brand power, and their performances in an extremely competitive sector underline that. Between them, our brands sell almost 900,000 copies every week, generating an annual RSV of £33million.
In the celebrity sector, Now delivers an ABC of 447,094, down 4.9% on the period and outperforming the sector. Abigail Blackburn was named editor of the magazine in March, leading a 40-strong editorial team, and under her editorship the title is already seeing an improved sales performance at the UK newsstand.
Meanwhile, the title's website, www.nowmagazine.co.uk continues to thrive following its re-launch in June. Omniture figures for June 2008 show the site delivered 624,917 unique users viewing almost 3.5 million page impressions representing an 81% increase in unique users and 63% increase in page impressions year-on-year.
Evelyn says: Now is outperforming the sector. Its sales since Abigail took over are going from strength to strength and I'm very excited about her plans to move the brand on both in print and online.
Woman's Weekly continues to lead the mature sector of the weeklies with a fantastically loyal consumer base, delivering an ABC of 346,540, down 5.6% on the period. Woman's Weekly retains its position as one of the UK's top 20 women's weeklies, and the title will see the benefits of continuing development work under editor Diane Kenwood in coming months.
Meanwhile, www.goodtoknow.co.uk, which launched in August 2007, has already established itself as the indispensable online destination for hundreds of thousands of UK women with 383,000 unique users in June, according to Omniture. Connecting women with the best practical and inspirational ideas, tips and advice to help them with their busy lives, www.goodtoknow.co.uk includes a number of core content channels from Health and Diet to Sex & Relationships.
IPC TX
In the competitive TV weeklies sector, market leader IPC TX remains committed to delivering innovation and increasing cover prices across its portfolio.
Flagship brand What's on TV posts an ABC of 1,346,815, down 2.9% on the period and 5.3% on the year. What's on TV increased its cover price to 45p in the New Year, pricing it at an 18% premium to rival TV Choice. As a result, What's on TV delivers £3.8million more in retail sales value and a more discerning audience for advertisers.
www.whatsontv.co.uk increases the brand's reach even further and the site continues to soar, building on its February ABCe of 358,700 unique users. Whatsontv.co.uk is currently in development and recently saw the additions of a new video channel; the UK's first guide to online television; and a new-look home page making the most popular content even easier to find.
IPC TX managing director Fiona Dent says: What's on TV is a fantastic brand with a massive circulation, which it achieves at an 18% price premium to competitor TV Choice. What's on TV's editorial development this period has delivered a superior product for readers and an attractive environment for advertisers it's no wonder the number of brands using What's on TV is increasing.
Sister title TV easy reports an ABC of 231,334, which, against a strongly promoted period, is down 18.8% year-on-year.
Fiona says: TV easy has a loyal core readership that loves the magazine's innovative compact format, and bright, modern design. We've invested in TV easy with a great new look this period, supporting its cover price increase to 45p.
In the premium sector, TVTimes delivers its best year-on-year performance since 1999, once again showing an improving trend. It delivers an ABC of 336,929, down 4.6% year-on-year.
Fiona says: TVTimes is one of the nation's best-loved brands, providing more stars and more stories than any other TV magazine. TVTimes has performed brilliantly since its 2006 redesign and it continues to reap the benefits.
TV & Satellite Week introduced a new look in April and remains the clear leader in the multi-channel sector, posting an ABC of 188,471, down 6.5% year-on-year. At £1.10, TV & Satellite Week is the highest priced TV weekly and delivers 92% more in RSV than rival Total TV Guide.
Fiona says: TV & Satellite Week leads the multi-channel sector by far and continues to innovate with a terrific new look that enhances its premium credentials. It offers readers even more of their favourite shows and more channels than any TV magazine.
In the soap sector, TX fortnightly Soaplife is up 6.9% on last period and 0.1% on the year, delivering an ABC of 109,493.
Fiona says: This is another fantastic performance from Soaplife. Soaplife leads innovation in the sector, delivering a must-read magazine for the nation's soap fans.
IPC Southbank
In the competitive women's monthlies market, IPC Southbank's portfolio delivers strong performances across lifestyle, fashion and home interest.
woman&home celebrated its best circulation in a decade last period and has once again delivered a star performance: up 5% on the year and 0.3% on the period with an ABC of 336,888. The monthly glossy champions a 'brand new attitude' for modern, 40-plus women, securing Kylie as the cover star for March and Madonna for its latest issue.
Jackie Newcombe, IPC Southbank managing director, says: The woman&home team absolutely understands today's 40-plus woman and more and more of these modern, optimistic women are discovering woman&home. The last few years have seen woman&home go from strength-to-strength, and it's no wonder that publishing director Linda Swidenbank and editorial director Sue James have been acknowledged with industry awards.
Essentials continues to benefit from its new look introduced at the start of 2007 and reports an ABC of 100,214, up 6.5% period-on-period and 0.2% year-on-year.
Jackie says: Essentials is well and truly back on track. It is packed with inspiring practical content, which is ideal in the current economic climate.
In the competitive fashion market, In Style delivers an ABC of 180,879, which is up 1.2% year-on-year and 0.7% period-on-period.
Jackie says: This is a great performance from In Style in a fiercely competitive market. In Style has an extremely loyal following thanks to its unique approach to celebrity style and beauty, which it delivers marvellously both in print and online.
Marie Claire posts a headline ABC of 316,765, down 4.1% on the period and 4.8% on the year. Within this number, whilst export has experienced a blip, the UK newsstand and subscriptions remain stable, down just 0.5% period-on-period and 2.8% year-on-year.
Jackie says: Marie Claire is celebrating its 20th anniversary this month and it's a timely moment to reflect on its successes: undoubtedly the most influential monthly launch of the current generation and inspiration for many new titles. Marie Claire invented and still owns a unique position in that it delivers fashion and insight in equal measure. Our new 'Fashion with Heart' campaign captures that spirit very precisely.
In the homes sector, the IPC Southbank portfolio delivers strong results once again, with four increases on the period and four increases on the year.
Homes & Gardens is enjoying its third consecutive period of growth since a refresh last spring. It delivers an ABC of 143,900, up 3.5% year-on-year and 2.7% period-on-period. Livingetc, Britain's biggest-selling modern homes title, cements its market-leadership and delivers its highest ever ABC. At 98,395, Livingetc is up 8.5% on the year and 4.7% on the period.
Ideal Home, the UK's biggest-selling home interest title, delivers an ABC of 221,080, up 3.1% on the period. 25 Beautiful Homes posts an ABC of 118,373, its third consecutive year-on-year increase, up 1.6%. And Country Homes & Interiors continues its run of ABC growth, up 5.7% on the year and 0.5% on the period to 87,056.
Jackie says: IPC Southbank is without question the home of home interest. Our portfolio continues to lead by every measure by newsstand volume share, by newsstand value share and by advertising share. And with the continued success of www.housetohome.co.uk increasing our presence online, it just gets better.
IPC Inspire
IPC Inspire the specialist interest publishing division within IPC Media continues to significantly outperform its competitors. This is a result of continued product development and detailed circulation and distribution work.
IPC Inspire has two titles reporting an ABC this period Amateur Gardening and Golf Monthly.
Amateur Gardening Britain's most popular weekly gardening magazine posts an ABC of 46,128, up 5.1% period-on-period. It retains its title as the number one gardening weekly ahead of Garden News for the fifth consecutive period and widens the gap to 9,880 copies.
Golf Monthly is once again the outstanding performer in the golf sector, with a total ABC of 82,264 up an impressive 10% year-on-year. This growth has seen an increase in newsstand market share to over 35.7%.
The magazine's excellent performance coupled with the highly successful re-launch of www.golf-monthly.co.uk in late July underlines Golf Monthly's status as the most forward-thinking and dynamic force in UK golf media.
Golf Monthly's magazine and website integration over the last 12 months has been an outstanding example of how Inspire brands are continuing to deliver new and complementary content across print and digital platforms. Video, online reviews, live blogs and picture galleries are now all being developed alongside established print franchises as reader/user experiences are maximised by the brand.
Publishing director Hamish Dawson says: I'm delighted with the great performance from both of these magazine brands. Amateur Gardening copy sales continue to perform very strongly year-on-year at retail, well ahead of most of its weekly or monthly competitors, and Golf Monthly is still on a roll, delivering yet another year-on-year sales increase and this time a double-digit one. I'm particularly proud that in both cases we've continued to improve our share of sale at the newsstand, and deliver yet more value to gardeners, golfers, and retailers alike.
IPC Inspire managing director Paul Williams says: In a very challenging and tough copy sales market, it speaks volumes for the commitment, skill and drive of the Golf Monthly and Amateur Gardening teams that both have delivered circulation growth - it's another fantastic performance.
ENDS
About IPC Media
IPC Media is one of the leading consumer magazine publishers in the UK. Its five publishing divisions are: IPC Southbank, IPC TX, IPC Ignite, IPC Connect and IPC Inspire. IPC is wholly owned by Time Warner, one of the world's largest media groups.
For further information, please contact:
Chris Taylor, head of media relations, IPC Media, Tel: 020 3148 5406,
email: chris_taylor@ipcmedia.com
Victoria Higham, senior press officer, IPC Media, Tel: 020 3148 5401, email: victoria_higham@ipcmedia.com
Anna Gawan, press officer, IPC Media, Tel: 020 3148 5405, email: anna_gawan@ipcmedia.com
For high-res covers and images of key IPC Media personnel go to http://www.ipcmedia.com/imagebank/covers.php
