Highest Circulation Print Publications & .Com Traffic Comparison
In an effort to see how Web site visits compare to monthly circulation statistics, I’ve taken the 10 ten print magazines and the top ten daily newspapers in terms of circulation according to CisionPoint and estimated monthly U.S. visitors for their Web sites accordingly using Quantcast. I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the resources, but I think the numbers make an interesting snapshot. What do you think? What inferences do you make from this data, if any?
Newspapers
1. The Wall Street Journal
• Circulation – 2,024,269
• Web site traffic – 4,200,000
2. USA Today
• Circulation – 1,900,116
• Web site traffic – 5,500,000
3. The New York Times
• Circulation – 927,851
• Web site traffic – 14,200,000
4. Los Angeles Times
• Circulation — 657,467
• Web site traffic – 6,900,000
5. The Washington Post
• Circulation – 582,844
• Web site traffic – 5,800,000
6. Daily News
• Circulation – 544,167
• Web site traffic – 6,300,000
7. New York Post
• Circulation – 508,042
• Web site traffic – 2,900,000
8. Chicago Tribune
• Circulation – 465,892
• Web site traffic – 2,600,000
9. Toronto Star
• Circulation – 418,966
• Web site traffic – 670,800
10. Houston Chronicle
• Circulation – 384,419
• Web site traffic – 3,000,000
Magazines
1. AARP Bulletin Today
• Circulation – 24,305,715
• Web site traffic – 1,000,000
2. AARP the Magazine
• Circulation – 24,554,819
• Web site traffic – 248,400
3. Best Read Guides Inc.
• Circulation – 17,000,000
• Web site traffic – Not available
4. The Costco Connection
• Circulation – 8,217,263
• Web site traffic – 70,100
5. Reader’s Digest
• Circulation – 8,158,652
• Web site traffic – 771,200
6. Better Homes & Gardens
• Circulation – 7,634,197
• Web site traffic – 11,000,000
7. Weekly Reader
• Circulation – 7,000,000
• Web site traffic – 12,400
8. Kraft Food & Family
• Circulation – 6,625,000
• Web site traffic – 2,400,000 (Kraft Web site, magazine does not have dedicated site)
9. Hustler
• Circulation – 5,000,000
• Web site traffic – 921,000
10. National Geographic Magazine
• Circulation – 4,708,307
• Web site traffic – 5,900,000
Photo credit: Macrophile
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Rachel-Thanks for this post. What inferences would I make from this data? Reputation matters online. Look at the numbers for The Washington Post. Nearly ten times the web site traffic as circulation. NYT has nearly 15 times the web site traffic as circulation. If you look at the top five on this list, the least popular online has at least twice as many web site visits as circulation. If only the news folks could find out how to make some money off all those online visitors journalism would be fine.
As for Hustler? I guess that’s the exception that proves the rule that reputation matters. A magazine coming in the mail is still fairly private. Viewing that same magazine online is most decidedly not.
Great post.
Bill,
Great thoughts – thank you! I think it proves that we have to reevaluate how we measure PR efforts sometimes. I like your thinking.
Rachel
One thought on the magazine numbers: the magazines that rank 1, 2 and 4 are marketing vehicles for membership organizations. So, judging from the low numbers for the magazine websites (when compared to the high numbers of their magazine’s circulation) is probably not going to give you a complete picture.
As an example, Costco.com gets 7 million uniques, according to compete.com, per month.
You can probably make the same hypothesis from the AARP numbers.
Very interesting to see this all laid out in one place. Thank you! For print circulations, it obviously isn’t a surprise. While you cannot ignore the power of online news, you also have to look at who is reading what and where. From my own personal consumption habits, I may scan a paper quickly, but when I go to an outlet’s Web site I am looking for something pretty specific–and if a brand, product or expert is in the article(s) I find, I am much more open to be influenced.
The flip side of this for me personally is still magazines. While I prefer to gather my hard news online, nothing matches the feeling of sitting down with a thick magazine (such as Real Simple or InStyle) and pouring over each page, picture and article. While you didn’t look at those in particular, overall it seems like magazines have still held the heart of some consumers.
As always, great read!
Alexis,
I agree with you that I often scan a Web site and quickly read the posts that attract me, but nothing engrosses me more than a nice hour long read of a fashion or entertainment pub. It’s a shame we can’t calculate more specifically time spent and where.
Rachel
Not surprised to see the NY Times dominating the web numbers. They are clearly the online leaders from newsprint.
But are those really the top 10 US print magazines by circulation? Seems like lots of them are missing. Must be some other caveat to that list.
Nonetheless very cool to see the traffic/circulation numbers. Now tell me which numbers are more empty. How many of those newspapers are never read and how many of those website visitors are instant bounces? Wonder which numbers have the most accuracy.
Jason,
Thanks for your thoughts. Yes, those are the highest circulation magazines! I can pretty much quote that as fact. It’s based only on circulation. But yes, it would be great to really drill down on some of those stats.
Rachel
Great read Rachel!
So, if we assume that the staggering website traffic of the daily/weekly periodicals is due in part to the fact that the information they provide is highly time sensitive (a day from now that news can be stale- replaced with more news) – I can see why their respective web sites enjoy such visitation.
However, that data on magazines does pose a different story. In all cases (save for BH&G and NGM) the circulation numbers are more impressive. Why would we suppose that? Well, National Geographic is highly photogenic, so I can see why many flock there online (they have an entire section dedicated to wallpapers). BH&G could be lumped into a similar category. I don’t think we can overlook the amount of marketing these respective companies do for their online presence. For example, when was the last time you saw an ad for Reader’s Digest Online? Perhaps the circulation revenues for RD are too highly profitable to push the online presence- as hard to believe as that might be? Perhaps corporate leadership of these companies is more conservative- more archaic? Or perhaps the readership of these magazines is simply loyal? My father has been getting NGM sent to his house since 1973.
At any rate, really good read. Interesting numbers… perhaps one day we’ll know why the data is what it is!
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