• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, May 31, 2013

Magazine ad pages may be declining, but their print readership isn’t, according to the latest data from GfK MRI, which found that the total audience for American consumer magazines increased 2.36% from 1.19 billion in spring 2012 to 1.21 billion in spring 2013. The spring 2013 figure is also up 1.12% from 1.2 billion in fall 2012.
 
Out of 182 magazines measured by GfK MRI, 113, or 62% of the total, showed year-over-year increases in print audience size from spring 2012 to spring 2013.
 
Some of the biggest increases in print audience size were seen at Diabetes Forecast, up 48.7% to 4.9 million; Psychology Today, up 36% to 3.8 million; Yoga Journal, up 31.2% to 2.3 million; Coastal Living, up 27% to 4.4 million; Food Network Magazine, up 25.6% to 11.2 million; Elle Décor, up 23.9% to 2.3 million, and Life & Style Weekly, up 23.2% to 4.6 million.
 
Among magazines experiencing year-over-year print audience declines, Family Fun was down 23.3% to 4.1 million; Inc. was down 21.5% to 1.14 million; and PC World was down 21.3% to 2.63 million.
 
When magazines’ digital audiences are included (referring to digital editions, and excluding visitors to magazine Web sites), the total U.S. audience increased 2.98% from roughly 1.2 billion in spring 2012 to 1.23 billion in spring 2013. While the digital audience is growing fast, it remains a fairly small part of the total audience.

In spring 2012, the digital audience of 9.2 million represented 0.8% of the total, while in spring 2013 the digital audience of 16.9 million represented 1.4% of the total.