French magazines

According to the circulation figures released by the OJD (Office de Justification de la Diffusion) for 2011, Mondadori France confirmed its position as a leading publisher with significant successes and excellent circulation results.

“Innovation and editorial quality are our strengths and the drivers of our performance,” underlined Ernesto Mauri, the chairman of Mondadori France. “4 re-launches since 2010 and three new titles in three years: Grazia in 2009, followed in 2011 by Auto Plus Classiques and Guerres et Histoire, which further reinforced our Science & Vie brand,” Mauri added. “These results have also been accompanied by an authentic success in advertising, thanks to which our advertising company has achieved a market share of 10.3% (+0.7% compared with 2011), positioning the company in second place, in terms of volume, in the magazine sector,” Mauri concluded.

Genuine circulation success
Among the haut de gamme (upscale) women’s titles was the continuing circulation success of Grazia France, which reached an average sale of 184,832 copies, an increase of +3.1%.
Meanwhile also the “success story” of Biba has continued, showing the strongest and most significant growth among the competitors in the same segment. In fact the monthly has grown by 80% since 2004 and in 2011 grew by a further 4.5% to an average of 326,339 copies.
Pleine Vie, following a redesign completed last June, saw newsstand sales increase by 54.5% compared with 2010, with an average circulation at 843,647 copies (+1.3%).


Additional leadership
Modes & Travaux, after an extensive reconfiguration is now, after 26 years, the leader in its market of reference with an average sale of 444,228 copies (+5.9% compared with 2010). In two years the magazine has increased average circulation by 70,000 copies (+19,3%), to become the women’s monthly with the highest growth level compared with the previous year (+24,859 copies).
Since 2009 Telé Star has achieved the best performance in the market for TV listings titles (+1,037,954 copies) and in 2011 became the second magazine among the titles in the weekly segment. Despite a general decline in the sector, Télé Star limited its fall to -2.5%.
L’Ami des Jardins is the leading gardening monthly, with an average circulation of 154,736 copies (+3.6%).

Confirmed leadership
2011 saw the confirmation of the success of Top Santé, the main point of reference in the health and fitness area since its launch, which recorded a 5.8% growth in sales to an average of 350,386 copies; while Closer which, with an average circulation of 414,174 copies, maintained its leadership among the “people” titles for women.
In a particularly difficult market, the car titles of Mondadori France continued to perform extremely well. Auto Plus, with an average sale of 297,667 copies, confirmed also in 2011 its leadership among generalist weeklies in the segment.
And once again, Science & Vie, with a circulation of 288,690 copies (+2.4%) and Science & Vie Junior, with sales of 168,533 copies (+2,7%), were the leaders in their respective segments.

Mondadori has joined forces with Flipboard, the world’s first social magazine for the iPad, to make content from Grazia.it, Grazia.fr and Graziadaily.co.uk available on Flipboard. International fashion and style aficionados can access the three language versions of Grazia in Flipboard’s Content Guide, where the publications are featured this week.

Flipboard, named Apple App of the Year by Apple, allows readers to discover, browse and share digital content that has been optimised for iPad for an unparalleled reading experience. Additionally, they can to flip through news, photos, videos and friends’ updates on Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader, LinkedIn, Tumblr, 500px, Flickr and Instagram.

From today the section featuring Flipboard’s recommended titles provides access to a range of digital content from the web sites of Grazia Italy, Grazia France and Grazia UK.

Mondadori is the first publishing group in Italy to work with Flipboard and Grazia the first digital women’s title in Italian to be present on the app.

“We are delighted to be working with Flipboard which will enable us to make Grazia.it accessible to users of the app that Time included among the 50 best inventions of 2010,” declared Vittorio Veltroni, general manager of Mondadori Digital. “Flipboard has recorded 4 million downloads across the world for the iPad, generating 600 million flips per month, a figure that is destined to rise. Grazia.it will then be available to an increasingly large audience, and audience that combines its passion for fashion with shopping, as well as socialising,” concluded Vittorio Veltroni.

“With Grazia Flipboard readers can access the content of one of the brands that is synonymous with fashion and style in Italy, France and the United Kingdom,” claimed Christina Mace-Turner, head of partner strategy at Flipboard. “For the first time, we are integrating content in three different languages, a first step in customizing the Flipboard experience for our readers around the world.” Mace-Turner, concluded.

Grazia France is two years old and celebrating its leading position in the “News Fashion Magazine” category. The upscale women’s weekly, published by Mondadori France, headed by Ernesto Mauri, has been a significant publishing success with excellent results in both circulation and advertising.

The magazine, edited by Yseult Williams, is highly appreciated by its readers thanks to an original and immediately recognisable editorial concept that combines news and celebrities, fashion, beauty and culture. Now a point of reference among haut de gamme women’s titles, Grazia France, which has from the start being an anticipator of trends, is aimed at a target of women between the ages of 25 and 44, who are active, independent, dynamic and who love to be kept up to date with habits and styles.

Circulation and advertising:
Grazia France has reached an average weekly circulation of 182,726 copies (OJD/dsh 2010 – 2011) an increase of +3% compared with 2010.
In the months of July and August alone, Grazia saw an increase in circulation in France, compared with the previous year, of +17.5%, with weekly sales of 210,000 copies. The magazine also achieved record circulation with its September issue “Special Mode”: 230,000 copies sold in France (source: publisher’s data) with a total of 116 advertising pages.
The weekly is in second place in the entire French magazine market for the total number of advertising pages sold: 2,436 pages in a year (October 2010 – September 2011), an increase of +63% (+942 pages).
The client portfolio, which is made up almost exclusively of up-market brands, confirms the upscale positioning of Grazia France, with more than 70% of fashion and beauty brands and around 50% of selected brands.

The Grazia.fr web site:
Grazia.fr has a monthly average of around 400,000 unique users and 4 million page views (source: Nielsen), and, in September, recorded a record number of hits on the site with more than 5 million page views.

Applicazione per iPhone e iPad:
The Grazia France app for the iPhone has been downloaded by 300,000 users and is recording some 2 million page views per month. Meanwhile, yesterday saw the launch of the new “Grazia Spécial Accessoires” app dedicated to fashion accessories for the autumn/winter 2011/2012 season.

First half 2011 results and activities:
In the first half of 2011 Mondadori France generated revenues of €172.4 million, an increase of +2.4% on the same period of 2010. In terms of advertising, the company saw an increase of +4.7% compared with the first half of the previous year, while circulation revenues were up by +2.1%.

“These positive results confirm the value of the strategy based on strengthening our large circulation titles, alongside a policy of continuous improvement in editorial quality and the success of an innovative magazine like Grazia”, declared Ernesto Mauri, chairman of Mondadori France.

Also of note was the growth in circulation of the Group’s women’s monthlies, including Top Santé (+11.2%), Modes & Travaux (+11%) and Biba (+7.4%); a positive performance by the popular science area Science (+1.8%); the strengthening of the leadership in the auto segment (1.6 million copies per month) and brilliant performances by Télé Star (1,046,149 copies) and Closer (431,686 copies).
Finally, it should also be pointed out that the company’s digital activities have also been reinforced thanks to the acquisition, in September 2011, of Autoreflex.com, France’s second biggest portal for online car sales ads (Business to Consumer).