• by Erik Sass , September 9, 2009

From 2002-2009, weekly magazines have suffered a bigger decline in overall paid circulation (paid subscriptions and newsstand sales) than their monthly brethren, according to a MediaPost analysis of figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations covering this time period.

Together with comparable figures for daily newspapers, this analysis suggests that print media with more frequent publication schedules are more vulnerable to competition from new media -- especially the Internet. There are, however, a few shining exceptions, including The Week and The Economist.

The analysis compared paid circulation figures for 80 leading monthly and bimonthly magazines -- including most big titles from Allure to Vogue -- to paid circulation for 20 leading weekly magazines, from Barron's to Woman's World. Between June 2002 and June 2009, the group of 80 monthlies saw total paid circulation decline 8%, from about 27.9 million in June 2002 to 24.3 million in June 2009.

Within this group, 30 titles (37.5%) actually saw total paid circulation increase from 2002-2009: for example, Dwell jumped 125% from 136,578 to 308,225, More vaulted 71% from 723,066 to 1,238,181, GQ grew 18% from 775,084 to 913,571, and Men's Health rose 11% from 1,659,594 to 1,843,643. But these were more than offset by losses at the 50 remaining titles, including big names like National Geographic, down 33% from 6,890,852 to 4,614,151, and Family Circle, down 19% from 4,671,052 to 3,792,909.

In the group of 20 weekly magazines, only five (25%) saw total paid circulation rise from 2002-2009: the most notable increases came at The Economist, up 101% from 403,131 to 810,821, and Us Weekly, up 74% from 1,065,589 to 1,854,935. Also enjoying big increases in total circulation is The Week; although ABC figures are not available for June 2002-June 2003, they are from June 2004-June 2009. The Week saw total paid circulation skyrocket from 246,425 to 509,986 -- a 107% jump.

Despite these bright spots, overall, the group of 20 weekly titles saw combined paid circulation fall 13% from 27,908,668 in June 2002 to 24,255,994 in June 2009. This was partly due to steep falloffs at titles including the National Enquirer, down 53% from 1,801,598 to 854,035, Newsweek, down 25% from 3,248,097 to 2,441,591, and Time, down 18.4% from 4,114,137 to 3,358,589. Also contributing to the overall decline for weeklies were BusinessWeek, Globe, New York, People, Sports Illustrated, Star and Woman's World.

The pattern of decline at weekly titles from 2002-2009 resembles shrinkage in total circulation for daily newspapers over the same period. An analysis of circulation figures for 125 national, regional, and local newspapers (which began the period with circulations over 50,000) from March 2002 to March 2009 shows an overall decline of 15.3%, from 27,554,248 to 23,337,155.

In both cases -- weekly magazines and daily newspapers -- there was a period of relative stability from 2002-2005, followed by accelerating losses from 2006-2009. It was only in the second half of this latter period, from 2008-2009, that their fortunes diverged from monthly magazines, which continued to decline, but at a slower pace.