• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, February 12, 2008

Time magazine received a body blow in the latest circulation report from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, leading a round of bad news for consumer magazines in a variety of categories. Comparing the second half of 2007 with the same period in 2006, Time Inc.'s flagship title saw newsstand sales fall 19.4% to 107,277, as subscriptions tumbled 17.5% to 3,244,595. Overall, circulation fell 17.6% to 3,351,872.

In November 2006, Time cut its rate base 18.8% to 3.25 million, so the decline in subscriptions may be due partly to a purge of "junk" circulation, including automatically renewed subscriptions. But it's hard to put a good spin on the steep drop in newsstand sales, which advertisers often view as an indicator of audience engagement.

Ironically, the declines follow a major redesign that was intended to make the magazine appeal to a mass audience. Introduced in March 2007, the new look delivers less visual clutter for a cleaner, streamlined appearance. There is lots of clear "white" space, fewer, more eye-catching images, and interesting text formats.

In editorial terms, Managing Editor Rick Stengel said he wanted the magazine to become a weekly journal of analysis and commentary on world events resembling the Economist; he also brought a number of well-known opinion columnists on board.

At least Time isn't alone: competitors Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report also suffered in the second half of 2007. Newsweek's newsstand sales fell 16.3% to 92,576, while subscriptions were basically flat. U.S. News' newsstand sales fell 7.9% to 33,757, as subscriptions also remained flat.

There was some good news in the newsweekly category. The Week continued building its subscription base with 8.2% growth to 478,593. Meanwhile, the Economist enjoyed newsstand growth of 10.1% as subscriptions rose 13.1%, for a total circulation increase of 12.8%, to 652,545.