Magazine retail sales up by 6pc

Culinary magazine Dish won the supreme honour at the Magazine of the Year Awards.

A 6 per cent rise in over-the-counter magazine sales last year shows the industry is offering readers more of what they want, says the Magazine Publishers Association.

The MPA's inaugural Magazine Retail Sales Value survey shows sales through retailers totalled $263.5 million last year, up from $248 million in 2004.

The association says an estimated 80 per cent of magazine sales occur over the counter and only 20 per cent are via subscription. The retail sales survey figures do not include subscription sales.

MPA executive director John McClintock said the survey was commissioned to help boost the magazine industry's profile with advertisers.

Compiling the figures had not been possible in the past because magazine distributors were reluctant to share commercially sensitive figures.

The association had overcome that issue by using an independent auditor to collate the information.

"What we're trying to do is give people a view of what the magazine medium is worth in New Zealand," McClintock said.

"It's allowed us to put a stake in the ground as to where we really sit; $264 million is quite substantial and it's something I don't think advertisers have realised is being spent by the consumers of the advertising medium."

McClintock said the association hoped to add subscription sales figures into future surveys.

Again it was an issue of convincing companies to hand over commercially sensitive data.

MPA chairman Heith Mackay-Cruise said the 6 per cent over-the-counter sales growth figure confirmed the association's view that the magazine industry was thriving.

"Consumers have more media choice than ever. Yet magazines remain central to a reader's lifestyle, because they represent leisure and aspiration," he said.

On top of what readers forked out, Advertising Standards Authority figures show advertisers spent $223 million to get their message into magazines in 2004.

Last year's figures will be released next month and are expected to show an increase of about 10 per cent.

Mackay-Cruise said New Zealand publishers had traditionally produced "iconic, general interest" magazine titles and, until recently, they had left the specialist interest categories to overseas publishers.

But this was changing, with a number of high-quality local specialty titles appearing on newsagents' stands during the past couple of years.

He cited Taste, Healthy Food Guide and Dish as examples of titles targeting specialist communities. Other international magazines such as Dolly and Top Gear had tapped into the local market by producing specific New Zealand editions.

At the MPA's annual Magazine of the Year Awards ceremony last week, Dish, one of the newer specialist titles, won the supreme award.

It was launched in August 2004 by Jones Publishing, targeting wealthy female readers interested in cooking.

It found a niche slightly higher up the food chain than popular category heavyweight Cuisine.

The New Zealand Listener, published by New Zealand Magazines, a division of APN which publishes the Herald, was named best current affairs and news magazine and its editor Pamela Stirling was best editor in the current affairs category. Nicky Pellgrino, the former editor of New Zealand Woman's Weekly, was named best mass market editor.

Overall editor of the year was Rebecca Hayter, of Boating NZ.