Zoo magazine boosts circulation by nearly 10% after demise of rival Nuts
When Nuts magazine closed it made an unlikely plea for readers to buy its bitter rival Zoo and they appear to have taken its advice.
The Bauer Media title, which now has the weekly lads market to itself following Nuts’ demise last year, boosted its circulation by nearly 10% year on year in the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations figures published on Thursday.
Zoo was up 9.9% on the second half of last year to post a combined circulation of 32,449, including 1,985 subscribers to its digital edition.
It was an unlikely comeback after years of decline for the title, which launched along with Nuts in 2004 and peaked three years later, their subsequent decline hastened by some supermarkets’ decision to remove them from their shelves.
Nuts magazine to close
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Men’s Health stayed on top of the paid-for men’s market with the biggest decline at former lads’ mag champ FHM.
Hearst-Rodale’s Men’s Health had a combined circulation of 200,156, including 9,490 sales of its digital edition, in the second half of 2014, down 6.2% year on year.
It stayed ahead of Condé Nast’s GQ, which had a combined sale of 125,090, including 12,516 on digital, down 1.5% on the same period in 2013.
Bauer’s FHM suffered the biggest drop, down 17.9% year on year to 79,189 (including 3,386 digital).
Hearst’s Esquire continued to close the gap on FHM, selling an average of 58,576 (including 5,658 digital), down 2.3% on the year.
The two giants of the men’s sector remain the free titles, Mike Soutar’s Shortlist, with a distribution of 500,449, down 6.4% year on year, and UTV Media’s Sport, which handed out 301,502, down 0.9% on 2013.
The biggest year-on-year gain was at another free title, Square Up Media’s Square Mile monthly magazine, up 19.7% to 57,533.
Among the other titles in the sector, Condé Nast’s Wired had a combined sale of 54,024 (including 8,316 digital), down 6% year on year. But its print sale of 45,708 included nearly 10,000 copies given away for free.