ACP Media maintains leadership in magazine market

1 March, 2006

ACP Media maintains leadership in stable magazine market

ACP Media has maintained its industry leadership in a stable magazine market with an overall readership market share of 26.4%, figures released today show.

Nielsen Media Research National Readership Survey figures show that readership of ACP Media titles mirrored a steady market. ACP Media's magazines division posted a 1% increase versus the previous year, on the strength of some key titles.

In the highly competitive young women's market readership increases for Cleo (+5%), She (+6%), and Dolly (+11) were a key highlight. The latest release figure of 145,000 for NW, places it at more than twice the readership of competitor Who Weekly.

ACP Magazines' flagship title Woman's Day (+3%) also continued its strong performance since its relaunch in November 2004. Having grown its readership by 29,000 against the previous year, Woman's Day now boasts more readers than TV Guide in the weekly magazine sector.

"The results for Cleo, She, Dolly, NW and Woman's Day show that we're successfully reaching women of all ages, and that these titles continue to offer fresh and engaging content. The performance of Woman's Day is also a welcome endorsement of our strategy of actively investing in our products to meet consumers' and advertisers' needs," said Heith Mackay-Cruise, Chief Executive of ACP Media.

Other standout performances for ACP Magazines include parenting title Little Treasures (+9%), and the Air New Zealand Magazine (+13%), which once again posted a significant increase in readership, giving it a total gain of 46% or 84,000 new readers in just two years.

In ACP Media's Trader division, niche title Lifestyle Block was a star performer, with a 33% year-on-year increase taking its readership base to 57,000.

"Lifestyle Block is a great example of how powerful niche magazines are, and why we're constantly looking to grow our offering in this area. They respond to the needs of emerging markets by providing an ideal source of informative, relevant content to readers, and a perfect medium for advertisers to reach a well-defined target audience," said Mr. Mackay-Cruise.

Rounding out ACP Media's offering, the company's two property publications Property Press and Real Estate both showed increases, and now reach a combined readership of 659,000 people each week.

"The property magazines are a key resource for home buyers and the real estate industry alike, and again show the versatility of magazines as a medium."

ACP Media

ACP Media is New Zealand's leading magazine publisher. The company's Consumer Division publishes some of the country's most popular magazines, including Woman's Day, The Australian Women's Weekly and Next, and iconic titles such as Metro and North & South, as well as the new food magazine, Taste.
Trader Group's stable includes Auto Trader, Deals On Wheels, Motorcycle Trader & News, Trade-A-Boat and Buy Sell & Exchange, as well as a number of associated online services. ACP Media's Property Classifieds Division publishes a range of real estate advertising titles including Property Press and Real Estate magazines and websites.

ACP Media operates a national distribution network through its subsidiary Netlink, which distributes publications to retailers across the country. ACP Media is a subsidiary of ACP Magazines Limited, a division of Publishing and Broadcasting Limited.

ENDS

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