Latest ABC - Steady as you go!

It's ABC time again.

Remember most industry magazines don't submit their titles to circulation audit so a bowler tip to those that do.

Here the 2013 circulation figures with those for 2012 in brackets...

Railway Magazine: 37,853 (37,285) - up 1.5% 

Rail: 20,122 (20,123) - no change

Railway Gazette International: 10,711 (10,533) - up 1.7%

And by way of comparison, Steam Railway: 31,281 (31,810) - down 1.7%

Yet again reports of the demise of Dead Tree Media appear somewhat exaggerated.

New Franchising Policy - RAIL Exultant!

Amongst senior industry figures the take on today's New Franchising Policy has been somewhat upbeat.

Phrases like: 'competent', 'pleased', 'deliverable' and 'making the very best of a bad job' abound.

Meanwhile there is near euphoria in Peterborough, the home of RAIL, as tomorrow (Wednesday) is press day.

After much lobbying it appears that  DfT has finally gotten the message!

Today's announce allows RAIL scribes to analyse the New Franchising Policy so that subscribers can ruminate over both it and their cornflakes on Saturday morning.

And as any ful kno RAIL has '523,198 copy sales a year with an estimated 2,615,990 readers'.

ABC circulation figures - An editor writes...

Dear Fact Compiler...

Following on your round-up of ABC figures a week or two back, a quick note to let you know that Rail Technology Magazine also put on readers, all through individual subscription requests rather than just bunging a load of copies out to irrelevant offices or depots or similar dodgy practices (shurely: '...rather than through meticulous database management and highly targetted mailings? Ed).

It’s now 9,118, up from 8,800 a year ago. We joined ABC in 2001.
 

We appreciate the implied tip of the bowler hat for allowing our figures to be audited!

As you say, it’s not a common enough practice among industry titles, especially the rail B2B sector, where we sit.

Adam Hewitt, Editor

Latest ABC - RAIL reverses the trend

It's ABC time again.

Remember most industry titles don't submit their titles to circulation audit so a bowler tip to those that do.

Here the 2012 circulation figures with those for 2011 in brackets...

Railway Magazine 37,298 (36,523)
 
Rail 20,123 (19.801)
 
And by way of comparison, Steam Railway 31,810 (32,266) 

Railway Magazine continues to perform strongly and RAIL has grown its circulation for the first time in several years.

If Eye has missed anyone out, please shout.

Once again reports of the demise of Dead Tree Media appear somewhat exaggerated.

UPDATE: This from the Railway Gazette...

Railway Gazette International has been a member of ABC since the 1960’s and has every intention of remaining a member for the foreseeable future.

Our 2012 certificate has been submitted to the  ABC.  We were a week later than usual in submitting this but well within the ABC deadline.  ABC have issued the draft certificate to us and the official one will be live next week.

Figure for 2011 was 10,548 print copies, figure for 2012 will be 10,533. 

We are 15 print copies down but this has been replaced by a huge increase in our digital only copies which are not counted in this audit.

Latest ABC - Railway Magazine up over 6%

It's ABC time again...

As Eye points out each year most industry titles don't submit their circulations to ABC audit, so a bowler tip to those who do.

Here the 2011 circulation figures for industry titles (with 2010 figures in brackets):

Railway Magazine 36,523 (34,168)

Steam Railway 32,266 (32,441)

RAIL magazine 19,801 (20,006)

Railway Gazette International 10,548 (10,258)
Eye's man in the Dead Tree Media comments:
Whilst the general trend in the print market is one of declining sales, railway titles are holding up well. Railway Magazine, sold by IPC in 2010 to Mortons, is the market leader for the 5th successive year and has recorded an impressive growth in sales of 6.85%! But with the chill winds of recession blowing across all sectors of the economy it’s going to be tough in 2012.

Eye wonders if the new owners of Ian Allan's railway titles will submit to ABC audit?

UPDATE: This from Citizen Kane...
Eye readers may be interested to see the circulation of some other titles.

The Beano manages 38,333, whilst Bob The Builder pulls in a mere 37,505.

On the plus side their circulations are down 4.4% and 16.9% respectively.