Magazine ABCs: Economist UK sales break 200,000 mark

The Economist broke the 200,000 mark in the UK for the first time in its 167-year history, according to figures released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations today.

The current affairs title had an average circulation of 210,204 for the second half of 2010, up 11.1 per cent on the previous year. This saw it overtake fellow news and current affairs title Private Eye, which fell 1.5 per cent to 207,154 for the period, after recording an 18-year high over the second half of 2009 with average sales of 210,218.

The current affairs title also increased its global circulation by 3.7 per cent to 1,473,939 copies a week.

Publisher Yvonne Ossman said the title had "deliberately chosen to broaden its audience, moving beyond targeting its traditional business and finance audience to reaching out to the intellectually curious, people defined by their interest in different ideas and cultures".

The Economist's success reflected a strong six months for current affairs titles, with monthly magazine the Oldie, published by Private Eye founder Richard Ingrams, up 10.1 per cent 35,965 and fellow monthly Prospect up 12.3 per cent to 28,446.

Today's figures show declines for the top 100 UK paid-for consumer magazines, sales of which fell 4.1 per cent on average for the second half of 2010, despite gains for around a third of titles.

TV Choice remained the biggest seller of the group with a total average circulation of 1,362,384, a 4.6 per cent increase year-on-year. What's on TV and the Radio Times maintained their positions in second and third place with a four per cent jump for What's on TV and a slight fall of 0.9 per cent for the Radio Times.

BSkyB maintained its stranglehold on the list of highest-circulation magazines overall, with free titles Sky Magazine, Sky Sports Magazine (UK) and Sky Movies Magazine (UK) occupying the top three places.

Sky Magazine hung on to the top spot despite a 1.8 per cent year-on-year drop to 7,291,605. Both Sky Sports and Sky Movies increased their circulations, with the sports title rising by 4.4. per cent to 4,307,394 and the movies title up by 5 per cent to 3,556,884.

The top five titles went unchanged on the first half of 2010, the only difference coming from Asda Magazine overtaking Tesco Magazine into fourth place after recording a 28 per cent increase on circulation figures on the previous year, the largest overall increase for the period.

Celebrity titles OK!, Heat and Now all suffered a significant drop in sales on the previous year with falls of 23.4 per cent for Northern & Shell title OK!, 19.3 per cent for Bauer Media title Heat and 14.2 per cent for IPC Media's Now.

Heat's fellow Bauer Media title FHM also suffered in the mens' magazine sector with a fall of 23.3 per cent to sales of 177,261.

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