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Official PlayStation Magazine – Australia readership rises 9.2% to 154,000
The Official PlayStation Magazine – Australia has experienced a 9.2% increase in readership from the July 10 – June 11 period, and is now read by 154,000 readers every month, according to Roy Morgan. This is the magazine’s highest readership since September 2006.
Citrus Media’s publishing director, Jim Flynn, said, “It’s a very strong result and reflects the magazine’s continuing role as an essential read for any PlayStation console owner. The team’s success at securing some amazing exclusive covers and the inherent strength of the PlayStation brand give us great confidence for the future as well.”
The magazine’s editor Luke Reilly was equally enthusiastic, saying, “The team is incredibly excited about yet another readership increase. The combination of a great looking magazine with some of the best gaming writers in the country, is clearly resonating with local readers and we couldn’t be happier. The team will be honing the magazine even further in the coming months to ensure it remains a crucial part of any PlayStation gamer’s diet – everything you need to know distilled into one regular, entertaining and informative package.”
This positive news comes in the same week that Game Informer – Official PlayStation Magazine – Australia’s stablemate in the Citrus Media portfolio – saw a 72% year-on-year sales increase in the same period.
Official PlayStation Magazine – Australia’s award-winning team, plus its veteran squad of long-time contributors, is dedicated to providing the best independent PlayStation coverage in the country every month.
Customers can pick up an issue for $14.95 from selected supermarkets, EB Games stores and all good newsagents. Every issue comes complete with a cover disc featuring 90 minutes of essential game videos and locally produced content. Subscriptions can be made through Magshop. To keep up-to-date with all the latest news you can find Official “PlayStation Magazine – Australia” on Facebook.
Game Informer is now Australia’s best-selling technology magazine
Game Informer is now Australia’s best-selling video game and technology magazine. The January-June 2011 ABC audit revealed the magazine is selling an average of 41,324 copies per month, an increase of 72% year-on-year and growth of 42% over the previous six months.
Citrus Media publishing director Jim Flynn is excited by the title’s growth saying, “When we launched the magazine we told our partners and advertisers we were going to hit 40,000 sales within a couple of years. Here we are on issue 20 and I’m ecstatic that we’ve achieved that. Our readers are predominantly 18-35 year old, tech savvy males who are embracing a print magazine. It’s an amazing success story and the plans moving forward are even more ambitious and exciting.”
The magazine’s editor Chris Stead sees the result as a big win for the print medium: “I strongly believe that good, consistent content is enough to not only make print succeed, but thrive in today’s market. It is absolutely possible to deliver an experience to a magazine consumer that they can’t get anywhere else and to surprise them with new and interesting product and analysis from all corners of the gaming world. It’s my goal to continue to amaze our readers with each and every issue and today’s results give me great confidence that Australian and New Zealand gamers are responding. With arguably the biggest Christmas in the video game industry’s history nearing, it’s a great time to be a gamer and a Game Informer reader.”
Game Informer issue 21 goes on sale on August 17, featuring yet another world exclusive game unveiling – Borderlands 2 – plus the best of the rest of the world’s video game news.
Customers can pick up an issue of Game Informer for only $4.95 from all good newsagents, EB Games stores and selected Coles supermarkets. Subscriptions can be made at EB Games stores or online at Magshop. Subscriptions made through EB Games stores come with a free Edge Plus card which offers added value when shopping at EB Games. Early glimpses of upcoming world exclusive covers are available by liking the Facebook group “Game Informer AU”.
Print vs Digital
Jann Wenner – the man that launched Rolling Stone magazine in 1967 and still publishes it to this day with a global circulation of 1.4 million – made some interesting comments to Ad Age recently, regarding the future of print magazines and his th
oughts on “tablet editions”.
Wenner, a strong advocate of the value of print publishing, who has championed the “power of print“, believes the rush to migrate magazines to tablets is “premature”, stating that publishers are showing little faith in their real asset – “the magazine itself, which is still a great commodity”. He believes, for now, digital magazines are “a small additive; it’s not the new business”.
In fact, he believes the digital future that publishers dream of may be years – “possibly decades” – away. “You’re talking about a generation at least, maybe two generations, before the shift is decisive,” he says in the interview, which you can read here.
It’s recommended reading for anyone chewing over what publishing platform to reach their audience through, with some choice quotes on the enduring value of a physical magazine.
“There’s a real advantage to getting a print product and having something you can hold and that, of course, is portable and has a luxurious feeling and is comfortable and immersive and you can spend time with it and it’s organized for you,” says Wenner. “As long as people want the magazine product we’ll deliver it.
“I think that’s going to be for a long time to come.”
