Freebies to stem advertising slump

WITH waterway magazine sales continuing to plummet, coupled with the demise of advertisers one is now publishing a stand-alone free edition, in an attempt to attract more advertising.

Canal Boat has now published a 'freebie', Tillergraph, thus offering advertisers an extra medium to offset the fall in popularity indicative of all the waterway publications, suffering from the two prong attack of falling readers and scarcity of advertisers.

Closely guarded

Most of the circulation figures of the magazines is closely guarded, but at least the leading one, Waterways World, is a member of the Audit Bureau of Circulation and has it circulation figures published. The circulation of this magazine too has plummeted, with a circulation in its heyday of ten years ago of an average of 17,917 copies per month, down to 14,311 in 2009, and right down to an average 12,613 copies per month last year.

Canal Boat is also members of ABC, with its circulation, we are told at 10,721 for the January to December of 2011. It boasts of the highest number of subscribers of any inland waterways magazine at 5877 (against Waterways World 5371 ) according to ABC for the same period.

The internet

We have often been told by people that they have stopped taking the magazines as the important news and the independent views of so many in narrowboatworld have made them redundant.  Though of course their features still have an attraction, particularly to newcomers.

The fall in interest in the waterways and the demise of so many waterway connected business have made it hard indeed for the magazines, in addition to the advent of the internet, and it is to their credit that they are managing to continue.