Food, fishing, and football are the hot tickets for magazine readership growth

Foodie magazines, fishing and rugby are the order of the day when it comes to the latest readership results.

Nielsen has released its year-on-year comparative results for Q2 2010 to Q1 2010.

Titles such as Dish, Taste and the ever-popular Healthy Food Guide continue to grow, along with fishing, boating and rugby titles.

In the women’s interest arena, real-life read magazine Lucky Break, launched three years ago off the back of Australian title Take5, continues its rise, growing 18% from 123,000 readers to 146,000 readers.

ACP stablemate the Australian Women’s Weekly has grown 8% from 607,000 readers to 658,000 readers, while the main women’s titles Woman’s Day, NZ Woman’s Weekly and New Idea have all experienced small, “statistically insignificant” decreases.

Nielsen makes a judgment on whether or not an increase or decrease is “significant” by allowing for a potential increase in the population.

On the men’s interest front, Rugby News has increased 19% from 94,000 to 112,000 readers; Boating NZ has increased 16% from 124,000 to 144,000 readers; NZ Fishing News has grown 14% from 265,000 to 303,000 readers; and NZ Fishing World has grown from 138,000 to 158,000 readers (14% growth).

Hunting & Fishing New Zealand, NZ Geographic and NZ Classic Car have also experienced readership increases.

Cuisine has hovered around the same mark, while competitors Dish and Taste have grown (24% from 108,000 to 134,000, and 31% from 165,000 to 217,000, respectively).

Healthy Food Guide now has 346,000 readers after a 12% increase.

ACP current affairs titles Metro and North & South have both grown (15% and 13%, respectively).

However the rest of the magazine market appeared static.

Men’s magazine M2 has entered the Nielsen readership toplines fray for the first time, while a range of titles, including National Geographic and Better Homes & Gardens, have exited.

ACP chief executive Paul Dykzeul declined to comment on the readership results.

It’s understood publishers have agreed to withhold opinions on readership right now.

Meanwhile, the newspaper readership results make for depressing reading, as only two have experienced “significant” increases nationally: Dairy News (88%) and NZHerald supplement TimeOut (10%).

Take it with a pinch of salt; Nielsen’s results this time around have been affected by a range of factors.

The Christchurch earthquake in February meant fieldwork in the region was suspended, resulting in a shortfall of 136 interviews, and further shortfalls for some demographic groups.

Quality control analysis of fieldwork in other regions revealed that “best practice” methods may not have been followed by all interviewers, while Auckland fieldwork was affected by staff shortages.

Survey auditor Professor Peter Danaher believes that the “unprecedented effect” of such issues has had a “negative impact” on the results for this quarter.