While newsstand sales continue to tumble, down another 10% for the first half of the year, magazines continue to see rising demand for their digital editions.
According to the Alliance for Audited Media, in the first half of 2013, magazines distributed 10.2 million digital editions per month collectively, nearly double the number circulated in the first half of 2012. Still, digital editions account for only a fraction -- 3.3% -- of total circulation, leaving many publishers disappointed that the iPad and other tablets haven't done more to help their businesses at a time when newsstand and print adverting sales (fashion category excepted) are particularly adverse.
The numbers are worse the closer you look. While 10.7 million is the total number of digital editions distributed per month over the six-month period, that average is heavily skewed by top seller Game Informer Magazine, which circulated nearly 3 million copies per month. Number two, Reader's Digest, sold approximately 292,00 copies per month. Number five, National Geographic, sold around 180,000 per month.
Meanwhile, ad sales in digital editions are up 25% in the first half of the year, though the numbers suggest that digital ads are bringing in only a fraction of the dollars that print ads do, largely because they're reaching a much smaller audience.