Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Sales of The Spectator

The Spectator’s figures are out today, and I’m delighted to say that they show sales growing at their fastest rate in ten years — driven by our new digital formats. The above chart shows how things are moving. I thought CoffeeHousers might like to know a bit more about how we in 22 Old Queen St see it all.

The magazine industry, like the rest of print, is going through something of a revolution. Readers are migrating to digital alternatives like Kindle, as there is no waiting for delivery. Kindle addicts like having their magazines and newspapers waiting for them in their pocket, available to read any time. As our readers changed, so has The Spectator. Our Kindle edition is no.1 in Amazon’s ‘News, Politics & Opinion’ charts. We now have two iPad Apps: one which contains Coffee House (download it here) and an ‘Exact Edition’ of The Spectator, a graphics-based replication of the magazine.

We decided to cut down on bulks: free magazines, distributed in hotels etc, and instead spend the money on digital development.

As a result the ABC figures, released today, show a headline decline but that’s because we have cut back the bulks and frees. The same ABC figures show an increase in actively-purchased copies of the magazine, for the first time in five years. This, in pretty horrid market conditions, is something we’re very pleased with. Our Australia-only edition, edited by Tom Switzer, is also showing impressive growth.

New readers, world over, are discovering The Spectator for the first time — and thanks to Kindle and iPad everyone can read it on a Thursday morning from Sydney to Salisbury. Many others are happy to wait until the weekend, to have something to curl up with on the sofa.

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