Newspapers thrive, magazines survive

The future is rocky for weekly magazines, according to the latest results from the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

ACP titles Woman's Day, NW, The Bulletin, TV Week, People and Picture all decreased, with the only publication to increase significantly being lad's magazine Zoo (formerly an Emap title), rising by 14 per cent.

Publishing rival, Pacific Magazines, experienced similar drops with titles including New Idea, That's Life and Who; but the greatest loss was felt in gossip publication, Famous, which fell by 16 per cent.

Newspapers, however, are still being read even in the advent of the electronic age. Fairfax paper, The Sunday Age, rose by nine per cent. "The Sunday Age is the fastest growing newspaper in Australia," said Don Churchill, chief executive and publisher of Victoria metropolitan and community publishing.

News Limited experienced an overall drop of 1.3 per cent in its printed circulation but took a victory with its magazine, Wish, which is inserted into The Australian, and rose by ten per cent.

Joe Talcott, director of marketing and circulation said that this decline was only minimal and by no means spelt the death of printed publications.

"The explosion in online newspaper readership has led some to talk about the death of newspapers," he said. "However, whilst there is some movement of readers, the drop of just 1.3 per cent in printed circulation compared to the same quarter year shows the remarkable resilience of our newspapers."