Magazine Efficiencies Up 3.4 Points, to 39.6%, in 2007

The average sell-through rate for magazines jumped by 3.4 percentage points, to 39.6%, according to a year-end analysis by John Harrington, editor of The New Single Copy.

In total, sell-through has improved by 6.2 percentage points since 2004, reports Harrington, who estimates that wholesaler efficiency programs resulted in nearly 400 million fewer copies being distributed in 2007 than the prior year.

Cover-price increases helped magazines’ dollar sales for the year increase 2.9%,  to $4.99 billion, while unit sales were flat (-0.2%), at 1.45 billion, according to the analysis, which is based primarily on reports from the Magazine Information Network (MagNet) prorprietary database of wholesaler sales data.

Harrington notes that this is a first analysis of the year’s performance, and that a final analysis should be ready in time for the Retail Conference at month’s end. However, adjustments, if any, would be very small--tenths of percentage points, he says.