Although news brands are dominant when it comes to reporting News & Current Affairs, magazine media plays a part in this by providing an authoritative voice and expertly curating content that is highly relevant and tailored to their interests.

Demand for this type of content is growing; the latest ABC results saw average circulation for the News & Current Affairs sector grow by 6% in 2015, with titles such as The Week showing +2% YOY increase and The Economist +5%. It is also not surprising that consumers pursue this content online; economist.com saw a 4% increase in total unique visitors is the last 12 month, highlighting continuing demand for magazine media content across channels.

In this month’s Passion Points series we take a look at two groups of news followers to explore their magazine media consumption and the opportunities this can have for advertisers.

Our analysis identified two groups of News & Current Affair consumers: ‘News Followers’ and ‘Super News Followers’. Both groups seek out magazine media to satisfy their interest for more detailed News & Current Affairs.  ‘News followers’ are 27% more likely to consume magazine media than the average adult, second only to newspapers and this increases to 47% for ‘Super News Followers’.

Although both groups show a high affinity for consuming News & Current Affair titles they are also more likely to enjoy other special interest magazines such as Golf World, The Garden and BBC History. This highlights the importance of broader consideration for brands beyond News & Current Affairs titles.

This highly targetable group can provide opportunities for brands across sectors. Both ‘News Followers’ and ‘Super News Followers’ more likely to be heavy spenders on Holidays, ‘News Followers’ are 31% more likely to be heavy spenders and ‘Super News Followers’ 58%. ‘News Followers’ are also 19% more likely to be heavy spenders on tablet computers, and 37% more likely to be heavy spenders on Jewellery, increasing to 36% and 78% for ‘Super News Followers’ respectively.

Audiences naturally gravitate towards magazine media that focus on their particular passion, so if you are a brand wanting to achieve stand out in the market or want to access this highly targetable group, a publishing environment can increase the effectiveness of your campaign.

See how News & Current Affairs title The Week drove online engagement for luxury brand Rolex here