Digital DNA

To continue the analysis of what the UK’s biggest-selling magazines are doing online, I have analysed the market sectors rather than the magazines themselves.

The analysis points to a clear conclusion – the bigger the market sector (in terms of magazine sales), the less the sector has developed its online offering. I guess this is obvious in a way, as the bigger the revenues are, the more the publishers are protecting their positions.

This is a false economy in my opinion and shows that traditional magazine publishers have a lot of work to do to maximise their online potential. They should be using their financial strength to invest in the future of these sectors and brands – as part of that future will be on a digital format whether they like it or not.

The Analysis
1. Women’s Interest: Women’s Weeklies
19 magazines in this category (17 of which are in the UK’s top 50 magazines) totalling over 9.6m magazine copysales every week. Only 8 of the 19 (42%) have a website, but only 4 out of those 8 have a website that registers in the top 250,000 sites in the world.

The digital star of the women’s weekly category is Hello, with a global Alexa ranking of 7,720.

My wife is a Heat reader, yet every day, she goes on to her Bloglines account and reads celeb gossip and TV info from other sources (Digital Spy, E! to name just two). Heat clearly doesn’t give people like her enough, yet I know that if this stuff was available on the hour from a Heat website, she would be there. And Heat would make more money out of her attention.

Here’s a list of the UK’s Top 50 magazines (as measured by actively purchased copies) and what each one is doing online. The scary thing about this list is that 15 of the Top 50 magazines in the UK don’t have content-based websites (that’s 30%). They may have a media pack or a subscription page, but no content.

Listing includes: Internet Play star rating (as defined below); magazine ABC (actively purchased copies); Alexa global ranking (the lower the number, the better); Alexa UK ranking (only for most popular sites).

1. What’s On TV ***: Circulation 1,508,595; Alexa 47,961; Alexa UK 2,578
2. TV Choice *: Circulation 1,286,385; no website, no Alexa ranking
3. Take a Break **: Circulation 1,073,145; Alexa 1,400,940
4. Radio Times ****: Circulation 1,055,667; Alexa 3,134; Alexa UK 112
5. Reader’s Digest****: Circulation 681,143; Alexa 225,862; Alexa UK 13,053
6. Closer ***: Circulation 583,524; Alexa 224,345, Alexa UK 9,341
7. Heat *: Circulation 568,818; no website, no Alexa ranking
8. Chat *: Circulation 543,950; no website, no Alexa ranking
9. Saga Magazine ***: Circulation 542,860; Alexa 65,963; Alexa UK 3,798
10. Now ***: Circulation 528.027; Alexa 80,733; Alexa UK 7,574
11. Glamour ***: Circulation 515,867; Alexa 35,756; Alexa UK 2,443
12. OK! Magazine ***: Circulation 493,013; Alexa 155,755; Alexa UK 20,234
13. That’s Life *: Circulation 487,432; no website, no Alexa ranking
14. Pick Me Up *: Circulation 437,185; Alexa 2,285,848
15. New!: Circulation 428,133; can’t find a related website, so no Alexa ranking
16. Good Housekeeping **: Circulation 422,905; Alexa 202,689; Alexa UK 15,434
17. Woman: Circulation 405,956; can’t find a related website, so no Alexa ranking
18. Yours **: Circulation 397,483; Alexa 515,502; Alexa UK 34,590
19. Love It!: Circulation 393,131; can’t find a related website, so no Alexa ranking
20. FHM ***: Circulation 386,062; Alexa 6,016; Alexa UK 587
21. Cosmopolitan ***: Circulation 373,360; Alexa 133,048; Alexa UK 9,693
22. TV Times **: Circulation 372,310; Alexa 46,737; Alexa UK 2,578
23. Woman’s Own *: Circluation 356,413; no content website, no Alexa ranking
24. Best *: Circulation 353,586; no content website, no Alexa ranking
25. Woman’s Weekly *: Circulation 352,051; no content website, no Alexa ranking
26. Sainsbury’s The Magazine ***: Circulation 351,251; Alexa 18,401; Alexa UK 648
27. Reveal *: Circulation 338,877; no content website, no Alexa ranking
28. National Geographic Magazine ***: Circulation 336,851; Alexa 641; Alexa UK 1,507
29. Bella *: Circulation 328,334; Alexa 2,942,400
30. People’s Friend *: Circulation 323,445; no content website, no Alexa ranking
31. Real People *: Circulation 316,066; Alexa 6,645,434
32. Prima **: Circulation 315,019; Alexa 202,689; Alexa UK 15,434
33. Woman & Home ***: Circulation 311,068; Alexa 395,763; Alexa UK 15,744
34. BBC Good Food ***: Circulation 308,995; Alexa 42,502; Alexa UK 2,180
35. TV Easy *: Circulation 301,576; no website
36. Nuts ***: Circulation 301,576; Alexa 25,743; Alexa UK 1,080
37. Candis **: Circulation 294,318; Alexa 839,300
38. Hello! ****: 293,293; Alexa 7,720; Alexa UK 481
39. Marie Claire ***: Circulation 284,607; Alexa 181,371; Alexa UK 11,929
40. BBC Gardeners’ World **: Circulation 276,562; Alexa 811,791; Alexa UK 43,575
41. More! ***: Circulation 270,126; Alexa 116,819; UK Alexa 9,031
42. Company **: Circulation 266,347; Alexa 1,352,334
43. TV Quick *: Circulation 262,172; No website, no Alexa ranking
44. Slimming World Magazine *: Circulation 251,660; Alexa 2,242,227; Alexa UK 74,957
45. Weightwatchers Magazine ****: Circulation 250,015; Alexa 35,696; Alexa UK 1,694
46. Star *: Circulation 239,143; No website, so no Alexa ranking
47. Ideal Home ***: Circulation 228,923; Alex 249,213; Alexa UK 17,702
48. New Woman ***: Circulation 225,851; Alexa 117,334; Alexa UK 10,881
49. Zoo ***: Circulation 225,253; Alexa 20,041; Alexa UK 930
50. Healthy **: Circulation 221,099; Alexa 4,876,779

n.b. not included magazines/publishers that declare ABCs of multiple magazines as one group. As the analysis here is looking at individual magazine brands not groups (e.g. BBC Pre-School Magazines Group).

* poor or no content – just an online media pack or subscription page,
** average with a majority of content from print version
*** good with original web content
**** excellent site making the most of the brand’s internet opportunity