Celebrity magazines used to be the impulse purchase at the airport or the supermarket checkout line. But those impulses are apparently being resisted.
Data released this morning by the Alliance for Audited Media showed celebrity magazines suffered mightily on the newsstand in the first half of 2014. People, InStyle and US Weekly watched their newsstand sales drop by nearly 15 percent in that time, compared with the same period in 2013. In Touch Weekly's newsstand sales declined by 23.5 percent, Star Magazine by 21.8 percent and Life & Style Weekly dropped by 21.7 percent. People StyleWatch suffered a 32.8 percent decline.
Even high-brow celebrity titles were challenged; Vanity Fair suffered an 11.8 percent decline.
To be fair, newsstand sales represent a small percentage of total magazine consumption. The subscription counterparts for celebrity titles fared better and showed modest growth. Subscriptions for People, InStyle and Vanity Fair rose by 3 percent during the first half of the year. Most other titles also had modest growth, including US Weekly (4 percent), Star Magazine (16 percent) and Life & Style Weekly (8 percent). People StyleWatch grew its subscriptions by 23 percent.
Overall total circulation for magazines dropped by 1.9 percent, with subscriptions dropping by 1.8 percent and single copy sales dropping by 11.9 percent. Though newsstand sales have been declining for several years now, they are still considered an indicator of the health of the industry.
Of the top 25 consumer magazines in the United States, based on circulation, American Rifleman had the most growth, with 11.6 percent more subscribers than the same time the year before. HGTV Magazines was one of the few titles that had any growth in its newsstand sales with a 7.4 percent increase.
Steven Cohn, editor of the Media Industry Newsletter, said that it wasn't just that more readers were getting their celebrity news from online sources rather than magazines. Magazines suffered when Source Interlink, the nation's second largest distributor, announced in late May that it would shut down. This year's terrible weather also prevented people from going out and shopping, he said.
"The weather was really lousy in the winter and the early spring," said Mr. Cohn. "You're not going to go out and buy magazines if you can't get out of your driveway."
Mr. Cohn said that these titles could benefit from the next surprise celebrity wedding, divorce or birth.
"All that could change if there's one big story like a Michael Jackson, something that is monumental," said Mr. Cohn. "The more unexpected the better."
While magazine publishers have set many of their hopes on digital subscriptions, digital subscribers are not replacing print subscribers at the same pace. During the first half of 2014, digital subscriptions made up 3.8 percent of total circulation, compared with 3.3 percent the same time the year before. During the same time in 2012, digital subscriptions made up 1.7 percent of total circulation. Mr. Cohn said readers are still adjusting to these new digital versions. "It's still pretty novel," said Mr. Cohn about digital subscriptions. "It's going to take awhile."
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