'Oprah,' 'Vogue' Among Major Newsstand Losers

The official semi-annual magazine circulation report won't be out until next month, but thanks to the Audit Bureau of Circulations' new Rapid Report system, this year we'll get an early look at how top monthly titles sold in the first half. And the answer is...not well, for the most part.

Hearst took some big hits, with newsstand sales of Good Housekeeping, Marie Claire and O, The Oprah Magazine all tumbling by double-digit percentages. O's newsstand average was down 16.4 percent, to 742,500, which certainly casts the supposedly voluntary departure of editor in chief Amy Gross in a new light. Marie Claire's average of 291,059 is down 11.7 percent from last year, and down an alarming 29 percent from two years ago, when Joanna Coles took over as editor in chief.

Meanwhile, Hearst's most profitable title, Cosmopolitan, was "only" down 6.7 percent; I use scare quotes around "only" because that represents a disappearance of around 124,000 copies per issue.

Not that the news is especially sunny outside Hearst Tower. Vogue and Glamour, two of Condé Nast's major cash cows, are both down double digits on the newsstand as well. (Condé Nast publishes Portfolio.) Vogue skidded 15.1 percent to 383,833, while Glamour dropped 10.4 percent to 676,466. Teen Vogue was off 15.7 percent in the first half, compared to an 8 percent decline for rival Seventeen.

One of the few newsstand gainers was Vanity Fair, which was up 5.8 percent for the half, averaging 375,666. And we all know who's to thank for that.

Ladies' Home Journal posted a massive gain of 24.5 percent, but that appears to be due to a program of selling discounted copies at dollar stores -- a program that was recently shut down.

Update, 7/30/08: According to more up-to-date data, Elle's newsstand sales were down 6.3 percent year-over-year in the first half, not 7.3 percent.

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Correction: An earlier version of the chart contained an inaccurate number for In Style. I made an error while inputting the data, and In Style has also updated the information it reported to ABC to reflect more recent data.