Longtime publishing industry observer Baird Davis points out that overall 6% unit sale decline was concentrated in the top twelve newsstand titles. The rest of the line (500 titles or so representing some 50% of the business) posted a unit drop of less than 2% and essentially flat retail dollar sales. Moreover, he posits that [...]
Ziff Davis Media will begin outsourcing circulation for its two print titles, PC Magazine and Electronic Gaming Monthly, to consultant Charles Mast starting immediately. Ziff Davis made this announcement only a few days after IDG announced that they too would outsource circulation for PC World, Macworld and GamePro to Miami and New York-based circ services [...]
Looking at the first half ABC numbers, Baird Davis notes the newsstand to subscription source ratio dropped to a new low of 17.2 percent. But he saw some good news in the overall circulation picture. Sales losses resulting from a 13 percent decline in the number of audited titles have been largely made up for [...]
Baird Davis cites their efficiency-improvement initiatives, shared services agreements and willingness to offer SBT terms to retailers as evidence of wholesalers changing their ways. Circulation Management (Sept. 17, 2007)