Executive Summary

The UK market for women's magazines has performed relatively well throughout the recession. Publishers continue to cater for and create new niche markets and new titles are launched at regular intervals. The total market was worth an estimated £665m in 1994, with almost two-thirds of this coming from sales revenue.

Women's magazines cover a broad range of interests, including the home, the family, fashion, hair and beauty, health, crafts and celebrity news. General interest titles include a combination of some or all of these. Most are published monthly, weekly or bimonthly.

General interest titles still dominate the market, but the home interest sector is showing rapid growth. Other developing areas are crafts, baby and parent, a new style of health and beauty magazine, and store magazines.

To compensate for a drop in revenue from advertising during the economic slump, many publishers were forced to increase their cover prices. By introducing added value, in the form of free gifts and supplements, they succeeded in maintaining circulation levels.

The leading publishes of women's magazines are IPC, H. Bauer, The National Magazine Company, EMAP, G&J of the UK, DC Thomson and Conde Nast.
H. Bauer owns the two top-selling magazines, Take a Break and Bella, while IPC owns the next three best-selling titles, Woman's Weekly, Woman and Woman's Own. IPC takes by far the greatest share of the market, in terms of both circulation and number of titles published.

While the vast majority are sold through newsagents, an increasing number are being sold by supermarkets or via subscription. Supermarkets are now estimated to account for 9% of all magazine sales.

Main media advertising expenditure for the purpose of promoting the magazines themselves, rose significantly between 1993 and 1994, by some 65%, to stand at more than £8m. This was equivalent to 1.2% of market value and significantly lower than the £250m revenue gained from advertising within the magazines.

The future of the market looks strong to the end of the decade. Consumer confidence is rising and advertising investment is on the up again, both of which are necessary for market growth. Changing distribution patterns are creating more buying opportunities and giving the assurance of guaranteed future sales. Increased competition and the constantly changing demands of today's woman, will contribute to improved standards.

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