Don’t fail to keep promoting your brands in magazines.
That’s the clear message from the latest Magazine Media 360° Brand Audience Report from the MPA – The Association of Magazine Media, which covers both print and online readership.
U.S. magazines’ total print and digital audience rose 7.6% to 1.68 billion in July from 1.57 billion in July 2014, the report said. But note that “magazines” now includes not only the familiar print versions, but mobile.
And that’s where most of the growth came from. The total mobile Web audience jumped 58.3% to 445.5 million from 281.4 million, and the size of the audience accessing magazine content via desktops or laptops edged up 3.2% to 256.9 million.
Digital growth more than offset a smaller decrease in magazines’ total print audience. But some print categories were doing well.
For example, some food and epicurean titles enjoying big increases. Allrecipes — Meredith Corp.’s new food title based on the Web site of the same name — saw the audience for its combined print and digital editions soar 38.9% to 7.5 million, with most of this in print. EatingWell was up 9.9% to 5.74 million, Vegetarian Times jumped 35.7% to 2.45 million, and Every Day with Rachael Ray edged up 1.9% to 5.21 million.
Smaller increases were seen at Food Network Magazine, up 0.5% to 12.4 million, and Bon Appetit/Epicurious, up 0.4% to 6.64 million.
A number of automotive enthusiast titles also saw their combined print and digital editions grow, with Car Craft up 3.4% to 1.93 million, Motor Trend also up 3.4% to 7.34 million, Popular Mechanics up 3.3% to 7.6 million, and Street Rodder up 4.3% to 2.11 million.
Last but not least, some highbrow journals experienced growth in this category, with New York Magazine up soaring 34.5% to 2.38 million, The New Yorker up 7.2% to 4.49 million, and Vanity Fair up 2% to 6.93 million.