Big gains among niche magazines

By IRENE CHAPPLE

If magazine publishers lived by a mantra, it may well be this: Know your market, then stick to your knitting.

Niche publications again showed up the more broadly targeted magazines in the latest readership figures.

New Zealand Women's Weekly has been kicked out of the most-read spot by TV Guide, which now has readership of 942,000.

New Zealand Women's Weekly sits just 8000 readers behind TV Guide, but a healthy 67,000 in front of third place-getter, quarterly magazine AA Directions, which has 867,000 readers.

Among readers over 10 years old, the industry's star performer was New Zealand Performance Car, which recorded a 42 per cent rise in its readership to 190,000.

Trade-A-Boat readership leapt 28 per cent to 106,000 readers, while NZ Home and Entertaining, NZ Wilderness Magazine, Mana Magazine and NZ Adventure, NZ Fishing World, NZ Classic Car and Rip It Up all recorded increases of between 20 and 24 per cent.

The New Zealand Listener and North & South recorded steady readership figures of 361,000 and 332,000 respectively.

Metro increased 6 per cent to 181,000.

Magazine Publishers Association executive director John McClintock said the maintained readerships of the women's magazines - seen as the most competitive market - were excellent.

Their reach among female household shoppers continued to grow, while overall readership remained steady.

Overall, more than 35 per cent of titles involved in the Nielsen Readership Survey had hit all-time highs, he said.