UPDATED: BPA Report Shows Newsstand Declines

Only two of the titles of the 110 surveyed saw considerable increases.

By T. J. Raphael
Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Publication audit agency BPA Worldwide released its U.S. Consumer Trac Data report for the period ending June 30, 2011 on Tuesday—the results show that newsstand sales across different titles throughout the industry are on a decline from the same period a year ago.

The data shows that only two titles in the 110 surveyed saw considerable increases—American Woodworker magazine had a 34 percent increase in newsstand sales, while Marin Magazine had a 22.2 percent increase.

BPA’s report shows several large losses in the newsstand category, with over 20 titles losing more than 13 percent. The largest newsstand losses were had by California Apparel News (-32.9 percent), Power & MotorYatch (-37.7 percent), Miller-Mccune (-47.8 percent), Roll Call (-77.3 percent), Thouroughbred Times (-73.5 percent) and The Hill (-77.5 percent). Billboard magazine saw a 100 percent decrease.

The biggest declines in circulation came from At Home With Century 21 (-22.1 percent), Archie’s Plus Group (-21 percent), WWE magazine (-43.4 percent) and IT Internet Truck Stop (-43.8 percent).

The top circulation gains came from Road King (18.3 percent), Wine Enthusiast (56.6 percent), New Mexico magazine (98.6 percent) and Accent (109.4 percent).

UPDATE: CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article stated Electronic Musician magazine saw a 33.6 percent decrease in single copy sales and Keyboard magazine saw a 100 percent decrease in the same category. BPA WorldWide has released the following statement: "The previously released June 2011 circulation figures for Keyboard magazine are incorrect due to a BPA programming error," says Peter Black, senior vice president for Business Development at BPA WorldWide. "The correct figures will be released following subsequent review and quality control test by BPA." He adds, "The figures for EM [Electronic Musician] are preliminary and should not have been released. As with Keyboard, an error in our system included them in the spreadsheet" data released.

Electronic Musician was acquired by NewBay Media in February 2011 and it was combined with an existing title, EQ, in June, 2011. Electronic Musician had not, until its merge with EQ, had any newsstand distribution at all. NewBay Media elected to put Electronic Musician back on the newsstand with the June issue with a small draw. The numbers perviosuly published actually compared the June issue of Electronic Musician with the December issue of EQ, meaning there was not a drop in the distribution of Electronic Musician.