Gadget magazine T3 is UK's most popular digital title

Gadget magazine T3 is the UK's most popular digital magazine, doubling e-edition sales to 22,000 in the past year, with GQ and BBC titles including Top Gear also making the top 10.

T3 reported an average monthly sale of 22,319 digital editions in the second half of 2013, the most of any magazine in the UK, according to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations report published on Thursday.

The Future-owned title has a total circulation of 52,975, with 42% of that figure reading the digital edition, sales of which have doubled over the last 12 months.

The specialist technology magazine's digital circulation and proportion of digital to print readers are well ahead of equivalent figures for many of the more general interest titles.

Condé Nast's Glamour sells 1% of its total 415,258 circulation in digital form (4,778).

However, Condé Nast appears to have the most successful digital strategy among the leading UK consumer magazine publishers.

Condé Nast's GQ is the seventh most popular digital title (12,173 digital edition sales, 9.58% of total 127,040); with the same publisher's Vanity Fair the most popular of the women's magazines at 15th overall (8,674 digital sales, 9.6% of total of 90,018), followed by Vogue and Wired (16th and 17th).

The ABC published combined print and digital magazine circulation figures for the first time for the second half of 2013. Digital editions, which must be an almost exact replica of the magazine, can be included as long as they are sold for at least 20% of the cover price of the print edition.

These first combined circulation figures suggest that more specialist, targeted titles are faring better at converting readers in the shift from print to digital.

Haymarket's Stuff magazine is the third biggest digital magazine in the UK, with sales of 14,949, accounting for 19.3% of total sales of 77,340.

Future's Total Film is eighth largest digitally, with 12,134 sales, 18% of total circulation of 67,450.

Immediate Media BBC titles feature strongly in the top 10. Top Gear is fourth with 13,402 digital editions, 8.88% of its total circulation of 150,884; BBC Good Food is ninth with 11,420 digital editions, 4.25% of its total circulation 268,844; and BBC History rounds out the top 10 with 11,139 digital editions, 12.46% of its total circulation of 89,378.

With print sales in long term decline attracting digital readers is key to future survival, however the question remains as to the value of a digital versus print customers.

Take T3 for example. The company charges £2.99 for a digital edition a month, and £4.50 for a print copy. This means that a digital customer is worth about two-thirds of a print customer - and that is before the considerable differential between print and digital advertising rates.

The company grew its digital edition circulation from 11,158 to 22,319 last year - with more than 50% of total sales coming from outside the UK.

Very simple maths, as Future sells a range of packages of digital and print combinations, would indicate that the 11,161 new digital readers at £2.99 a time equated to about £400,000 in new circulation revenue.

However, sales of the print edition declined by 15% last year, some 5,398 copies, to 30,656. The print edition is priced at £4.50, so the loss of readers equates to £291,000 in circulation revenue.

'Our focus continues to be transitioning our business towards a digitally-focused content model, and these ABC results show we are delivering clear results,' said Mark Wood, chief executive of Future.

While digital sales remain a tiny proportion of most magazine circulation figures, the growth rate is impressive.

ABC says that just three years ago (2010) it did not have a single audited digital edition in its reports. Last year the circulation of all digital editions it audits was 546,822.

Top 10 digital editions by circulation, July-December 2013

1. T3: 22,319

2. The Economist, continental Europe edition: 17,057

3. Stuff: 14,949

4. The Economist, Asia Pacific edition: 14,924

5. BBC Top Gear magazine: 13,402

6. The Economist, UK edition: 12,642

7. GQ: 12,173

8. Total Film: 12,134

9. BBC Good Food: 11,420

10. BBC History magazine: 11,139

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