NME magazine sales continue to decline

[Neil McCauley]

"Sales of weekly music magazine NME have dropped for the second six months in a row to under 30,000, figures have revealed.

A report conducted by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) showed the magazine's circulation fell 14.3% compared with the same time last year.

It was the biggest faller among other music and film magazines.

Mojo remains the largest monthly music magazine, despite shedding 4.8% in sales compared with last year.

Rock magazine Kerrang! saw a 0.2% boost in the last six months, but compared with the same time last year only suffered a decline of 2.2%.

Sales of Q fell by 10.1% on the previous year, followed by Total Film which lost 5.6% in the same period.

Sales for NME, which was founded in 1952, have now fallen to below 30,000 despite the magazine relaunching its format, front cover and logo last year."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-14581116

[aquapiranha]

Hi Howard. I think this is really a symptom of the Internet age, and I am sure you will find that the majority of magazine sales continue to fall, with the odd fashion led blip such as that for Kerrang.

[WAD62]

The NME's resembled smash hits for the last few years, so it won't be a great loss.

As Steve rightly states the internet has removed the requirement for such organs, particularly ones aimed at the younger generation.

There may still be room for the middle aged market but that'll ultimately decline too

All of course IMHO ;)

[griffo104]

NMe was ok when it was newspaper style mag and it had Sounds, always better, and Melody Maker as it's natural bed fellows.

As mentioned it's a shadow of it's former self.

[Neil McCauley]

Hi Howard. I think this is really a symptom of the Internet age, and I am sure you will find that the majority of magazine sales continue to fall, with the odd fashion led blip such as that for Kerrang.

And to think that I queued, holding my hard-earned, to get the latest issue of NME and Melody Maker too. Happy days rather than happy daze I feel. Long, long gone.

PS: I have EVERY copy of Q magazine – right up to the one that had "Top Dance Anthems" on the front page. Wankers! The writing was on the wall even back then.


*****************************

[Tim]

I think NME have missed a trick or two over the years and have manoeuvred themselves out of the market by targeting the wrong audience.

I get three publications by subscription, Word and HFN in the post and a digital copy of Stereophile. I buy NME occasionally, but it's quite rare these days.

[SCIDB]

Hi,

I'm not surprised at all. The music industry has changed alot since the Heyday in the 70s. NME sales figures have been a rollercoater for along long time.

At times, the music weeklies were slow to react to change.

[John]

I use to read Sounds back in the day To be honest I am not suprised

[MartinT]

NMe was ok when it was newspaper style mag and it had Sounds, always better, and Melody Maker as it's natural bed fellows.

I always preferred Melody Maker, but it's all a long time ago now. I never really forgave them for dropping prog like a hot brick when punk came along.

[The Grand Wazoo]

Like John, I was a Sounds person, myself.
To be honest - it's amazing that the UK has been able to sustain a weekly music press for anything longer than a fortnight. I think we're the only part of the planet that's ever managed it properly, for some reason.

[Pete The Cat]

NME is blind (deaf ?) to a lot of musics. Sure, they'd point to the odd album review that's off piste as evidence to the contrary, but it continues to plough the so-called "indie" furrow for 95% of its content. I'm sure its musical spectrum was wider 30 years ago, not to mention the scope of its journalism. Ironically the hard rock genre that it has always distanced itself from is responsible for maintaining Kerrang as one of the better selling mags. There's no coming back for it now.

Hopefully the Word will continue to get the mix just right. It's one of life's little pleasures... :)

Pete