MUSIC MAG SALES FIGURES: GOOD NEWS FOR EVERYONE

There's unliklely to be much gloom in the proper music magazine offices up and down the country, as only Uncut, Mixmag and The Fly see a drop year-on-year, and Mixmag, certainly, can't be that surprised at their fall. The NME has managed a 5% sales increase since the same period last year, while arch-rival Kerrang also saw its readership boosted by just over three per cent. Kerrang, though, may be less concerned at the NME increasing its lead again, as its own nemesis, Metal Hammer, has put on an extra twenty per cent over the course of the year:

Q – 160,310 – up 6.3%
Mojo – 114,626 – up 14.2%
Uncut – 110,015 – down 2.5%
The Fly – 107,519 – down 0.9%
NME – 73,640 – up 5.2%
Kerrang! – 64,554 – up 3.1%
Mixmag – 46,470 – down 7.9%
Classic Rock – 44,349 – up 15.2%
Metal Hammer – 40,236 – up 20.9%
Word – 33,376 – up 11.1%

In the fluffier end of the music mag market, Smash Hits appears to have bottomed out its fall from grace; the team at Top of the Pops magazine, though, might be rushing about looking for some sort of bell to ring as over a third of their sales have gone awry. And the shift to BBC TWO, with its ramping up of the Dad factor, isn't going to help with that at all:

Sugar – 285,082 – down 3.4%
Bliss – 276,253 – up 7.4%
Cosmo Girl – 163,602 – down 18.3%
Top of the Pops – 140,192 – down 35.4%
Smash Hits – 120,541 – down 0.1%
TV Hits – 84,463 – down 15.9%
It’s Hot – 82,199 – down 10.2%
Sneak – 80,077 – down 13.3%
Shout – 67,354 – down 1.3%
Mizz – 66,571 – down 14.8%

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