Circulation Drop Hits U.K. Weeklies

A 10 percent drop in the consumer music magazine sector has hit harder at New Musical Express and Kerrang!, as both weeklies lost more than one-quarter of their readers in the last year.

NME circulation dropped 27.2 percent to 40,948 and Kerrang! was down 28.3 percent. Bauer Media has just announced Nichola Browne, who for eight years has served at Kerrang! as news or features editor, has been promoted to the top job.

Two weeks ago, NME appointed Krissi Murison as its new editor, the first time a woman has held the post in the magazine’s 57-year history.

The monthly Classic Rock was the only actively purchased magazine to show an increase in sales, up 5.5 percent to 70,301. The Fly, the bimonthly free mag published by MAMA Group, was up 2.4 percent to 107,771.

It’s grown from being a listings guide for the Barfly club venues to being the biggest free music magazine in the country.

The monthlies haven’t been hit as hard as the weeklies, although they’ve also suffered sales drops of about 10 percent.

Q is still market leader among the paid-for titles, although its readership fell 11.5 percent to 100,172, allowing Mojo – its Bauer stablemate – to narrow the gap from 6,807 to 2,450 despite dropping 8.1 percent to 97,722.

Uncut is next (down 12 percent to 76,526), followed by Classic Rock, Metal Hammer (down 5.2 percent to 46,004), and then Kerrang! and NME.

In the first half of last year Uncut’s lead over Classic Rock was 20,293. Now it’s 6,225.