• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, August 14, 2001

According to new figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulation, many of the nation's top magazines are having a harder time selling issues at the newsstand. Eric Herman writing for the New York Daily News explains that industry executives consider newsstand activity to be the best measure of a magazine's health.

Talk Magazine, the general interest magazine published jointly by Hearst Magazines and Miramax Films, dropped 28% at the newstand from one year ago even though overall circulation rose 23%.

US Weekly, the celebrity magazine, slipped 12% at the newsstand, but Kent Brownridge, US Weekly's general manager, said that the magazine's transition from monthly to weekly format early last year skewed the numbers. He called it an apples and oranges comparison because recent newsstand sales show a brisk improvement. People Weekly and In Style, each saw newsstand sales rise with 6% and 5% gains, respectively, and Time Magazine, with paid circulation of 4 million, saw newsstand sales jump 14%. Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report each reported newsstand declines.

Additional magazine sales decline at the newstand:

- Mademoiselle lost 21%
- Jane lost 19%.
- Glamour lost 11%
- Vogue's newsstand sales were off 11%.
- Money Magazine was down 25%.
- SmartMoney off 30%.
- Worth Magazine's newsstand sales down 40%
- Business Week fell 11%

You can read more here.