Surprising .... or not

Started by Graham Walters, November 16, 2015, 10:35:35 AM

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Graham Walters

Surfing the net looking for information about newspaper and magazine circulation in the south, I was little surprised to see that not one hobby magazine features in the top 100.

Considering the mag at place 100 has a circulaiton in the region of 29000, it made me wonder just how low circulaitons for publications like BRM, RM and MR, and with the cost involved it's no wonder that they are trying to get us all onto digital editions.
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Newportnobby

Quote from: Graham Walters on November 16, 2015, 10:35:35 AM
Surfing the net looking for information about newspaper and magazine circulation in the south, I was little surprised to see that not one hobby magazine features in the top 100.


Could you define 'in the south', please? What catchment areas does that include?

Graham Walters

Quote from: newportnobby on November 16, 2015, 10:39:25 AM
Quote from: Graham Walters on November 16, 2015, 10:35:35 AM
Surfing the net looking for information about newspaper and magazine circulation in the south, I was little surprised to see that not one hobby magazine features in the top 100.


Could you define 'in the south', please? What catchment areas does that include?

Hmm as I live in Andover, I wondered what the readership would be in that sort of area, I can't even find a national or world figure for magazines not in the top 100, so all I can assume is that it is ess than 29000 nationally, and less than half that for the south if you draw an imaginary divide around the Brum area.
Which if you want to advertise something is not a decent figure for cost per head, although you have to take into account that you are more likely to reach your target audience than through say a free local paper with a larger readership.
Test Valley Models
testvalleymodels@gmail.com

Opening hours;
Monday Closed
Tues - Fri 1000 - 1700 
Sat 0900 - 1700 

Closed Public and Bank Holidays

Ian Morton

Cost per head isn't everything.

You've also got to consider the reader profile. Readers of the local 'free ad' paper may, or more likely. may not be interested in a model railway exhibition. They may also have, or being willing to part with, less disposable income.

A model railway magazine will at least guarantee that your advert is seen by people who are interested in model railways.

In fact a multi-pronged approach may suit you better - flyers and posters in local model shops (modellers), get a mention on local radio and the local evening paper (families), and so on.

Malc

In 2011, Railway Modeller had a circulation of 43,032. That is according to its web site.
The years have been good to me, it was the weekends that did the damage.

JasonBz


Graham Walters

Quote from: JasonBz on November 16, 2015, 11:15:59 AM
Figures posted in 2014 from ABC, so they are accurate; if slightly old now.


https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/uk.rec.models.rail/OgxXA-lt51w

Those are print and digital figures combined, I was referring to the latest print figures.

The chart I an referring to included Golf and other like magazines, but there was no mention of any hobby magazines, so perhaps these do not fit the criteria for ABC.
Test Valley Models
testvalleymodels@gmail.com

Opening hours;
Monday Closed
Tues - Fri 1000 - 1700 
Sat 0900 - 1700 

Closed Public and Bank Holidays

JasonBz

They are the figure from ABC, as are these
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/node/48769
I can see Model Rail there at just over 30,000 a 1.8% increase.

Newportnobby

Quote from: JasonBz on November 16, 2015, 11:45:03 AM
They are the figure from ABC, as are these
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/node/48769
I can see Model Rail there at just over 30,000 a 1.8% increase.

Good to see 'Simply Knitting' is right in there :thumbsup:
P.S. this is not a mag for fans of OHLE :no:

Agrippa

Still looking for Fishkeeping Monthly, often mentioned on
Have I got news for you............
Nothing is certain but death and taxes -Benjamin Franklin

railsquid

Quote from: Agrippa on November 16, 2015, 12:04:58 PM
Still looking for Fishkeeping Monthly, often mentioned on
Have I got news for you............
It's on the shelf next to "Fly Fishing" by J.R. Hartley.

Agrippa

Nothing is certain but death and taxes -Benjamin Franklin

Agrippa

The spoof magazine cover website has some great examples like the one
above. Reminds me of  the accountancy office where I  worked and we
were given a questionnaire about lifestyles so that the bosses could
tailor office outings to our interests.Most of the bores put What car ?
or Golf monthly as their favourite mag, me and some pals put down
titles  like Practical Embalming, Which Cluster Bomb ? ,  Gay Welders Monthly....
Nothing is certain but death and taxes -Benjamin Franklin

Derwentbob

I used to subscribe to Discrete Mathematics, Queueing Systems and Journal of Group Theory which all used to be posted pretty much in the same week of the quarter. The postman used to joke that he felt like slipping a copy of Razzle in there just to balance it up a bit. I tried to explain how sexy a subject combinatorics was but his eyes glazed over and he just nodded sympathetically.

NeMo

Quote from: Agrippa on November 16, 2015, 12:04:58 PM
Still looking for Fishkeeping Monthly, often mentioned on
Have I got news for you............

No such magazine. I wonder if they mean Practical Fishkeeping, pretty much the only British aquarium magazine left. I write for them fairly regularly (you'll see a nice photo of me in the Q&A section!) and know a bit about the hobby magazine trade.

At one point there were three or four fishkeeping magazines, at least one of which started in the early 1920s. Over the years they've mostly folded through dropping circulations. PFK keeps going, but it has to work hard at it. The real problem for hobby magazines is that the people who buy them are mostly starting out in that hobby. At one time, magazines were a cheap way to access quality information. Of course there were books, but often these were dated (publisher TFH for example cranked out some aquarium books that ran to twenty or more reprints!) or else didn't reflect changes in the hobby itself (such as newly imported catfish or breeding successes). Magazines plugged that gap, and were cheaper too, giving a low cost, high quality burst of information. As people became more expert they would drop their subscriptions as they gravitated towards clubs and their specialist newsletters, but a new generation of hobbyists would replace them. So while someone might only subscribe for a year or two, the total number of subscribers would be pretty consistent.

The big change is that nowadays magazines have to compete with web forums (like this one!) that provide virtually instant, often expert advice tailored to your particular question. Forums don't normally have the same editorial quality as a print magazine, so might not make such good reading, but if you're after an answer to a specific question, a forum can seem very attractive in comparison. So while a magazine will have nicer pictures and better writing, the fact a forum is free means that beginners will often go to a forum first and skip the magazine subscription.

There are new hobby magazines starting up, as well as some survivors from the golden age, but they have to work hard to create an identity and deliver value to their readers. PFK does that (for example) by commissioning pieces from people collecting fish in the wild, writing about their experiences and providing photographs of natural habitats. These people aren't likely to be active on forums so if you want to see that sort of stuff you need to buy the magazine. Similarly healthcare articles written by vets aren't the sort of thing forums can compete with (and frankly, healthcare answers on tropical fish forums ranges from the inept to the expert, and telling the extremes apart is hard).

Cheers, NeMo
(Former NGS Journal Editor)

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