How magazines tap into diverse and relevant audiences

Gareth Jones, Insight

Magazine brands reach 41 million adults in the UK each month, that’s three quarters of the adult population.

For context, according to Ipsos iris data*, an average of 40.4 million people visited Facebook.com each month between Feb ’22 and Jan ’23. In the same time period, the average number of monthly visitors to Amazon.co.uk was 38.3 million and 36.3 million to Instagram. TikTok had 19.1 million average monthly users during this period.

The new PAMCo data shows that consumers favour reading magazine content online with 34 million visiting magazine websites each month. However, whist digital content is popular, 38% of adults (over 20 million people) continue to read print magazines each month.

PAMCo demonstrates that digital magazine content appeals to all age groups with 10.2 million 15-34s, 11.9 million 35-54s and 11.6 million 55+ readers.

Print magazines are more popular with over 55’s audiences, with 9.9 million accessing their content in print. Print magazines over-index for this age group (126), demonstrating their efficiency at reaching this key audience.

The latest data from PAMCo also shows that magazine media continues to reach many important communities. The consumer magazine market represents the LGBTQ+ community with 2 million magazine readers who identify as something other than straight/heterosexual. Print magazines are particularly efficient at reaching an audience who consider themselves disabled (113 index).

Highlights

• 20.5 million UK adults read print magazines every month (38%).
• 34 million UK adults read magazine content online each month (62%)
• Magazines over-index for women across all channels, but especially strongly in print (109 overall and digital and 124 in print)
• Digital magazine content over-indexes for 35-54’s (113)
• Print over-indexes for 55+ (126)
• Audience of 2 million who identify as something other than heterosexual
• Audience of 5.8 million disabled readers. Over index for print media (113)
• 31.9 million people who read magazines say are the main shopper in their household

Male audience:

• 17.8 million men read magazine media each month
• 7.5 million in print and 14.7 million online
• There is a fairly even age split between 15-34, 35-54 and 55+
• Print magazines are especially effective at reaching the 55+ male audience (index 131) and audience of 3.7 million
• 5% of male magazine readers (900k) are not heterosexual. This is a slight over-index at 110 and equates to three quarters of this community reading magazines each month

Female audience:

• 22.2 (82%) million women read magazine media each month
• 12.7 (47%) million in print and 18.4 (68%) million online
• The readership is spread across age groups with 6.3 million 15-34’s (80% of age group), 7.2 million 35-54’s (86% of age group) and 8.8 million 55+ (81% of age group)
• Digital magazine media over-indexes for 35-54 indexing 112
• Print over-indexes strongly for 55+ (120)
• Magazines reach 14 million ABC1 women and 8.3 million C2DE women monthly
• Magazine media reaches 3.5 million disabled women monthly

The most recent PAMCo data release (PAMCo H1 2023) covers the period June 21 to December 22 fused with November 2022 iris data.

*Source: Ipsos iris Online Audience Measurement service, Feb 2022 to Jan 2023. UK, Adults 15+. Websites: Facebook.com, Amazon.co.uk. Brands: Instagram, Tik Tok