THE chance to play for free at two of Scotland’s best-known golf centres has helped a Scottish golf magazine enjoy a near seven per cent year-on-year sales increase.
Says the body responsible for auditing consumer magazine circulations, sales of bunkered magazine were an average 22,260 for the six months between July and December last year, up 6.5 per cent on 12 months previously, which stood at 20,896.
Says Paul Grant, publisher of bunkered: “Our strategy to source attractive subscription offers for its readers is paying dividends and is helping buck the trend of all the other three main UK golf magazines who have seen circulation drops, on average by ten per cent, over the same period.
“As well as maintaining our existing strong subscription base, these incentives are undoubtedly bringing new readers into the golf magazine sector, which is good for both bunkered and its advertisers.”
Not all Scotland-based magazine were involved in the audit, including architecture title, Urban Realm, winner of the Scottish Magazine of the Year title at the Scottish Magazine of the Year Awards, held in December. Also missing from the audit summary was the Glasgow and Edinburgh events titles, The List.
The golf courses featured in bunkered’s offer were the Kintyre course at Turnberry and either the Torrance or The Kittocks course at Fairmont St Andrews.
The magazine figures were released last week. They are issued every six months. Among the Scotland titles, the Big Issue in Scotland magazine saw its average, July-December sales figure dip 6.6 per cent, from 18,824 as at December 2009 to 17,583 a year later.
Homes and Interiors Scotland enjoyed a 3.9 per cent increase (from 10,953 to 11,377). The Great Outdoors also enjoyed an increase: from 10,696 to 10,793 (0.9 per cent).
Scottish Field was down – 2.5 per cent, from 13,610 to 13,270 – while The Scots Magazine was down 4.6 per cent (from 33,438 to 31,906). The Times Educational Supplement Scotland was up 1.7 per cent (from 5,987 to 6,089), while The Skinny – the free, culture magazine – was down 6.4 per cent (from 34,329 to 32,147).
There was no real change for Scotland in Trust – the free magazine of the National Trust for Scotland – which registered an average July-December 2009 figure of 179,576 and just five copies fewer 12 months on. Meanwhile, the Scottish edition of Auto Trader saw its figure fall from 8,105 to 6,418, down 20.8 per cent.
