Nielsen counts the numbers

AUCKLAND, Today: Magazine readership is up strongly in Nielsen results released this morning – and a separate retail report shows Kiwis are buying more local magazines. 

Overall, 85% of titles in the latest Nielsen Consumer & Media Insights survey (Q2 2020-Q1 2021) recorded increases against the previous quarter results, and half were up year on year.

The total readership of measured titles was up 1%.

Magazine Publishers Association chair Nicholas Burrowes said: “Especially pleasing for magazine publishers is another increase in the valuable primary readership – those who subscribed or purchased their own magazines, and who are traditionally considered most important to advertisers.

“Primary readers are up 16% in the past year.

“AA Directions, Hunting & Fishing NZ, Motorhomes Caravans & Destinations, NZ Geographic, Dish and Habitat did well.”

“Reinforcing these positive results for magazines are the latest sales figures from Ovato Retail Distribution. They show a 5 % increase in unit sales of NZ magazines at retail for the 13 weeks ending 31 March 2021, compared with the same period a year ago.

“The results show how much readers value their favourite magazine titles. Kiwis are prepared to pay for the deep, well-researched, targeted content that local magazines deliver, because they can’t get that anywhere else.

“The latest increase in primary readership reflects the deep engagement and affection people have with and for our great magazine brands.”

Travel and outdoor titles including AA Directions, Hunting & Fishing NZ, Motorhomes Caravans & Destinations and NZ Geographic were among the strong performers in the Nielsen release. The food title Dish and home title Habitat also did well.

The Bauer effect
The Nielsen release included a special six-month topline release for some titles like NZ Listener, Home and NZ Woman’s Weekly, who were out of the market for a period due to the Bauer closure last year, and unable to record a full-year result.

A few titles that did not measure in both periods were excluded from these comparisons.

• www.mpa.org.nz
• magazine360.co.nz