The Digital Direction: Combined Average Digital Circulation Of UK Mags Up 14% Last Year

An audit of UK digital magazines found that the combined average digital circulation reached three million per edition, up 14% from 2023 figures, according to Press Gazette.

Encouraging news, indeed, for publishers still on the fence on the value of a digital edition.

Additionally, according to the numbers released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), more than half (55%) of that circulation came via multi-publication, “all you can read” packages.

“It means publishers do not receive a full subscription price for these sales but instead get a royalty fee based on a Spotify-style model,” Press Gazette’s Charlotte Tobitt explains, pointing to examples like BBC Science Focus, which “saw 204% year on year growth in its digital circulation [and] attributes 99% of its readership to them.”

Looking at the larger collection of UK digital magazines, just over half saw a YoY decline in circulation. Similarly, on the print side, more than half “saw their print circulation decline by 10% or more in 2024.”

“The average print circulation change was -8.6%,” writes Bron Maher. “Across all the titles, combined print circulation fell 2.9% — likely reflecting the endurance of free magazines distributed by member organisations and at supermarkets, which are among the most-circulated magazines in the ABC data.”