MasterChef magazine sizzles in cold marketplace

Readers are hungry for new food title but lack an appetite for most weekly magazines.

The first issue of one-week-old MasterChef magazine, published by News Magazines, has been reprinted after the debut publication’s 260,000 print run proved a hit. This is good news not only for News Magazines but also for Hannanprint, which prints the title.

According to Fiona Nilsson, food titles publisher at News Magazines, the print run for the second issue of the monthly title will now be increased. “In just four days, it looks like we have already exceeded our initial target of 86,000,” she said. “Agents are selling out at an astonishing rate. Due to high demand, we are printing extra copies.”

In the land of sex scandals and celebrity, it was a different story. The sales figures were grim for many magazines according to the March-quarter statistics from the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

ACP Magazines (owned by PBL Media, which recently shelved plans to open its own printing facility), took the hardest hit with sales of its gossip titles, NW and OK! falling considerably by 15.39 per cent (NW) and 14.62 per cent (OK!). The one weekly title that lifted its performance considerably was Pacific Magazines’ celebrity gossip publication, Famous, whose sales rose by 14.39 per cent.

Nick Chan, chief executive of Pacific, told the AFR that consumers are more vigilant in their spending habits. “Interest rate rises, higher cigarette prices and rising petrol prices are having an impact on people’s disposable income and that affects magazine sales,” he said.