NME and Kerrang sink as readers desert music mags

by Staff, Brand Republic 14-Aug-08, 12:30

LONDON - There was uniform bad news for music magazines in the latest magazine ABC figures with Kerrang and NME suffering double-digit falls.

The NME, a strong online and live brand which has recently launched a radio station, saw its circulation drop 12.1% in the past six months, falling to 56,284. Year on year the IPC Media title is down 17.4% from 68,151.

Bauer-owned Kerrang suffered a bigger fall dropping 21.6% in the six months to 60,290. It has lost 27.9% of its sales in the past year falling from 83,610 and putting it only 4,000 copies ahead of the NME.

The monthly music magazines also suffered with Bauer's Q dropping 13.8% to 113,174, down 13.1% on the year from 130,179.

Sister title Mojo was one of the very few titles in the sector to arrest its decline. It rose 0.1% to 106,367 although overall it was down 5.1% year on year from 112,037.

Metal Hammer, which is published by Future, also managed to reverse a decline. It was up 6% to 48,540, but still down 1.2% on the year from 49,143.

IPC's music and movies magazine Uncut kept its fall to single digits dropping 4.5% to 86,925. However, it is still up on the year by 1.2% from 85,884.

Bauer's Empire put in another positive performance. It was up 3.1% to 187,202 and for the year was up 4.4% from 179,373.

Future's rival, Total Film, which recently announced it was launching a compact edition, was also down, slightly falling 1.4% to 84,520, down 1.3% for the year from 85,616.

Other titles in the sector had mixed fortunes. Development Hell's The Word magazine had a positive six months, maybe buoyed by Morrisey haters as it faces the miserable one in a possible court case. It was up 1.7% to 33,775 down 3% on the year from 34,816.

Its other title Mixmag did not fare so well. It fell 4.9% to 34,073 down 8.3% on the year from 37,139.

Read Louise Kennedy's blog on the demise of the music mags.

Comments

TIm Rooke - 14/08/2008

Bought it for about 6 years until they recently started to give away stickers... I stopped that day

jamie huxley - 15/08/2008

I just wrote this to remind myself what my username was. Thanks. I remember when the NME was made of newspaper.

Keith Geddes - 15/08/2008

Exactly.. Melody Maker and NME. How many years ago.. industry required read.. ads in the back.. NOW.. you have to go for Guitarist or similar at vastly more expense. Does any serious muso still buy NME? Maybe not.. Maybe the mags mentioned have gone too young. Total Film wasnt bad.. but I didnt buy many. Empire I got regular but then gave up. Maybe theres not enough going on each month to qualify.. Q and Mojo are ok, but young. AGAIN, how old are the people producing them??

Tim Collins - 18/08/2008

I still haven't given up on NME despite the fact that I'm getting older and they keep going younger. It's very important for new UK music that it exists in some physical form. I just hope they don't go to A4 like Melody Maker did just before the end.