The new ABC Fas Fax report was released this week, and there is some very good news on the newsstand side of the ledger for many top Canadian magazines.  In fact, some of the newsstand sales increases are absolutely stunning.  These results do demonstrate that the newsstand remains vibrant and unpredictable.

Plus, given the softness in subscriptions, the newsstand has arguably never been so important to publishers, seeking consumer support and paid circulation, solid cost per copy recovery, and insert card production for rate base management requirements.

    * Overall, single copy sales of ABC titles show an improvement of 6.5% in Canada

    * Overall sales improved to 1,162,710 units from 1,091,269 copies (stripping out magazines that were not reporting single copy sales last year)

The folks at Rogers should be extremely proud…the top four ranked by % improvement are:

1. Canadian Business tops the list with a 155% increase in  the Dec 2010      period, compared to Dec 2009.
2. Lou Lou is up 108%
3. MoneySense up 104%
4. Maclean’s is up 77%

Other notable and praiseworthy achievements include:

1. Canadian House & Home, who enjoyed the 3rd highest improvement in terms of total copy variance…up 16,415 copies or 26% overall
2. Chatelaine, who turned in the largest improvement in terms of copies…up 23,296 or 45% from the same period last year
3. Elle Canada, who enjoyed a sales increase of 6,661 units for a 43% improvement
4. Canadian Art turned in a great result, with sales improving by an average of 957 copies or 28%

It’s great to see the newsstand has rebounded so smartly for the ABC-audited titles in Canada.