Notes from the PBAA-MPA - More Magazines are Sold on Friday,Saturday and Sunday and 13 Other Fun Facts About Magazines at the Newsstands...
Posted by Samir Husni
http://mrmagazine.wordpress.com/
At the MPA/PBAA Retail Marketplace conference in Philadelphia,Gil Brechtel, from the Magazine Information Network (MagNet)presented 14 fun facts about the magazine business at retail outletsin the United States. His fun facts, all based on research and analysisfrom MagNet, were so intriguing, I asked him for permission to postthem on my blog... so here are 14 fascinating and educating funfacts about the magazine business at the newsstands:
1. About 50% of all magazine copies are sold on Friday, Saturdayand Sunday. The lowest selling day of the week is Wednesday, withonly about 11.5% of the total sold on an average week.
2. November is the weakest month for magazines sales, even thoughthe day before Thanksgiving is among the best magazine sales dayseach year.
3. Bookazine sales typically spike during the first few weeks of July,where the average cover price of all magazines sold during thatperiod has ballooned by about 12% in recent years.
4. Average monthly sales in June, July and August are 7% higherthan the rest of the year, helped by a spike in teen and childrenmagazine title sales!
December is a good month for those categories also.
5. On average, the biggest week to week sales gain comes duringweek 13, around the last week of March, where sales areconsistently 8-10% higher during this week compared to week 12.
6. Friday, followed by Sunday, are the two best days for magazinesales in airport terminals.
7. Although Saturday is generally the best magazine sales day of theweek, in July, Sunday sales outpace Saturday sales by almost 8%.
8. In the fall, celebrity title sales usually dip, while titles in the Food,Health and Automotive categories spike during the 4th quarter.
9. The computer category has the highest overall cover price ofcopies sold. The average cover price peaked at about $10.70 in Dec2012. That is a 20% increase over 2010 prices.
10. Sales tails matter! Bookazines and other SIPS on sale for 2months or longer sell nearly 20% of their copies after they've beenon the shelves more than 6 weeks.
11. Supercenters show strong seasonal magazine sales increases inthe summer, experiencing up to a 50% average surge in sales in thefirst three weeks of July!
12. Based on MagNet's sample of non-bookstore retailers, 20% ofall books sold in 2012 were sold on Saturdays. Friday is the secondhighest sales day.
13. Only 10% of Newsstand COT sales occur on Saturday, asopposed to nearly 20% at Bookstores.
14. How important to the industry are celebrity titles? Celebritymagazines sell more copies than the total sales of titles in the Food,Games, Health, Automotive, Home, Lifestyle and Teen categoriescombined.
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