It may seem a bit depressing to some that the Top 50 best-selling magazines account for a staggering 46% of the total marketshare (combination of checkout dominance, frequency, and powerful brands that consumers embrace). However, the big guys are the ones who have experienced the steepest losses since 2009.

It is  encouraging to see that sales of the smaller magazines (with passionate readers in various niches) have helped distributors, wholesalers and retailers offset those declines in a significant way.  Talk about reader engagement.  Looks like the mainline is becoming more important than ever before.

TITLE SALES BY GROUP

Source: Wholesale OR Q1 - Q3 2010 With nearly 7,000 titles in the distribution channel, it is interesting to note that the top 50 magazine titles represent nearly 45% of the total retail sales. Many of the titles in this group are displayed at the checkout and several of them are higher frequency titles, thus driving the total sales volume.