Woman & Home at 100: Print Decline Offset by Live Events and Social Video

Future-owned women's monthly Woman & Home turns 100 with print circulation down but falling slower than the market: average total circulation fell 4% year on year to 155,000 copies, paid subscriptions fell 4% to 75,000, and actively purchased copies fell almost 5% to around 141,000. The offset sits elsewhere. Its audience reached 1.9 million in August, up 9% year on year, time spent grew 38% to 5.2 million minutes, and social video views hit 23.9 million across Facebook, Instagram and YouTube in the year to September, up 55%. The title now runs three ticketed events a year, profitable and selling out almost immediately, with the 100th anniversary Christmas event expanding from around 200 to almost 1,500 attendees at GBP69 standard and GBP169 VIP. Editor in chief Hannah Fernando frames events as more than ticket revenue: "It's a snapshot, but it's real market research. You can really listen to those people and listen to what they're saying." The title's newsstand share is up 0.8% year on year in the women's lifestyle monthlies market, and its social footprint leans on Facebook, with 1.2 million followers there against 118,000 on Instagram.

The crux

A century-old print title is staying viable by treating events and social video as both revenue and audience research, which is the template for magazines whose print base keeps shrinking.

Sell-side read

Events and video are doing the work that declining newsstand sales used to, and they give sponsors a named hook (the vodcast takeovers) that display cannot match; price them as commercial products, not marketing.

Watch

whether the anniversary Christmas event's jump to almost 1,500 attendees converts into a repeatable annual commercial format.