Web, Mobile Mag Audiences Flatten In MPA Report

Audiences consuming magazine media on the web and mobile dropped in July 2017, compared to the same month a year ago, while video audiences steadily grow, according to the Magazine Media 360° Brand Audience Report from MPA - The Association of Magazine Media.

Most magazine audiences come from print and digital. In July, print and digital audiences made up 53% of the total audience, while 32% came from mobile, 11% from the web and 4% from video.

The total audience for July 2017 is flat versus the same month a year ago, with a marginal growth of 0.8%.

The report includes 127 magazine brands across 30 companies. This is the first month Men’s Journal is included in the report, as AMI bought it in June from Wenner Media.

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When MPA analyzed the top 100 web domains and the top 100 mobile web domains, it found that year-over-year comparisons for magazine brands are consistent with the audience trends of the online industry as a whole, per an MPA spokesperson.

From July 2016 to July 2017, video audiences — defined by the MPA as unique viewers that watched a video at least once through a player owned or operated by the publisher and/or through a clearly branded video channel — have grown 51.9%.

Print readers and digital visitors, which include those that consume electronic issues of a publication, such as on an e-reader or app, have also increased year-over-year, by 3.7%.

“We have found that while consumers—of all ages—still report a strong preference for print magazines, our audiences consume a lot of digital content, too. You don’t have to choose one over the other. Audiences consume digital content in addition to printed magazines, not in place of them,” Linda Thomas Brooks, president and CEO of MPA—The Association of Magazine Media, told Publishers Daily.

However, web audiences consuming content from magazine brands on a desktop or laptop are down 14.4%. Mobile audiences, which are unique visitors that visit a site on a mobile device, fell 2.2%.

The top five magazine brands with the most total audience across all platforms for July were ESPN The Magazine, People, Forbes, WebMD and Allrecipes.

The magazine brands with the greatest percentage growth in total audience for July, compared to the same month a year ago, were Entrepreneur, Teen Vogue, domino, W and Veranda.

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