THE Big Issue in Scotland magazine suffered a 30 per cent drop in its sales during the 12 months leading up to December last year.
According to the ABC circulation audit, the magazine – sold on the streets by vendors who are homeless – saw its average sales fall in Scotland from 31,401 to 21,846.
Elsewhere among Scottish magazine titles, DC Thomson’s My Weekly, People’s Friend and Scots Magazine all suffered year-on-year drops, between December 2007 and 2008: 6.3 per cent (from 162,874 to 152,675), 2.6 per cent (from 335,486 to 326,790) and 7.8 per cent (from 37,632 to 34,681), respectively.
The Dundee-based publisher’s teenage title, Shout, and its children’s counterpart, Bratz, also suffered falls: 5.4 per cent (from 86,618 to 81,904) and 27.8 per cent (from 57,139 to 46,385), also respectively.
Also published by DC Thomson, the Weekly News had a 14.3 per cent drop over the twelve months between December 2007 and December 2008: from 70,576 to 60,451.
Figures for The List and Homes and Interiors Scotland magazines were not available up to December last year. In December 2007, the List’s average sale in Scotland was 9,686, while, in June last year, the figure for Homes and Interiors Scotland was 10,979.
The Great Outdoors – published by the owners of The Herald, Newsquest – saw its average sale dip from 10,705 in December 2007 to 9891 twelve months later, a fall of 7.6 per cent.
The Church of Scotland’s Life and Work saw its average sales fall in Scotland, from 31,725 to 29,878 (a fall of 5.8 per cent), while Scottish Field’s average sale was down, year-on-year, from 14,106 to 13,905, a drop of 1.4 per cent. The Times Educational Supplement Scotland also suffered a drop: by some 11.1 per cent, from 7,157 to 6,366 copies.
Free titles,The Skinny and Scotland in Trust, both saw circulation jumps. Edinburgh-based The Skinny, which describes itself as ‘Scotland’s cutting edge culture and listings magazine, saw its circulation leap 40.7 per cent, from 23,089 in December 2007 to 32,487 12 months later. Scotland in Trust, which is distributed to members and supporters of the National Trust for Scotland, had a more modest 3.6 per cent increase, from 175,486 to 181,803.
The Scotsman’s free title, Locations Scotland, saw its year-on-year circulation increase, from 24,918 to 25,969 – up 4.2 per cent.
There were no figures available for music magazine, Clash – winner of the Magazine of the Year title at last year’s Periodical Publishers Association Scotland awards – nor for political magazine, Holyrood. It was the same for the celebrity, gossip and beauty title, No.1, and CA Magazine, published by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland.
