ABCs: Public NME

The latest ABC figures for the six months ending December 31st 2014 are out and tell a depressingly familiar tale of year-on-year declines, with NME down by 23% year-on-year with circulation dropping from 18,184 to 15,384.

As (possibly false) rumours abound that the NME is about to adopt a Time Out style free model, it was revealed that 1, 389 of sales in that period were digital and the figures represent a 2.2% drop in print sales period-on-period. Owners Time Inc UK stated that NME’s total weekly brand reach across print, online, social media and live events has grown to 3.9m.

Elsewhere, Mojo was down by 4.7% to sales of 70,693 whilst Bauer’s rock weekly Kerrang! experienced a year-on-year dip of 13.7% to 30,300 sales. Q magazine, also owned by Bauer saw a 3.7% rise on the previous period, up to total sales of 50,161 despite a 5% dip year-on-year.

In a solitary bright spot for music print mags, the circulation of monthly Rock Sound rose year-on-year by 2.2% to 13,516- this was the second consecutive annual rise for the rock mag, which had a print circulation of 12,406 at the end of 2012.

Publisher Patrick Napier said: “Rock Sound is aimed at the millennial age group that aren’t supposed to buy magazines any more. It’s certainly not easy but this second annual ABC increase shows that with a strong editorial package combined with an active online presence, it’s possible to succeed”.