Market trends at 31 March 2020

The Trade book market in the first quarter of 2020 recorded a fall in value of -9.6% compared to the previous year. Until February the decline was limited to -1.1%, but with the closure of physical bookstores due to the health emergency the decline reached -29.3% in March.

Following the Covid-19 health emergency and the consequent closure of the physical channel of bookstores and chains, representations of sell-out data by channel were temporarily suspended.

In the magazine sector, surveys in February, not yet affected by the Covid-19 emergency, showed the following trends:

  • the advertising market registered an overall increase of +0.8%, with growth in the Digital (+4.8%), Radio (+13.9%) and TV (+2.0%) channels. Magazines reported a decline of -12.2% and daily newspapers of -6.7%;
  • the circulation market for magazines declined by -8.8%;
  • the market for add-ons recorded a negative performance of -2.1%.

 

Market's evolution

FY19FY199M191H191Q19FY189M181H181Q18FY179M171H171Q17FY16
Trade books -9.6% +5.5% +4.6% +4.0% +0.8% -1.1%-0.4%-0.1%4.1%5.4%2.3%1.3%-0.4%0.7%
  • Bookstore chains and e-commerce*
 n.a. +8.3%+7.5% +6.9% +0.8% -1.1% -1.3%-1.2%0.8%2.7%1.9%1.4%0.2%2.4%
  • Independent bookstores
 n.a.-1.3% -1.5% -0.6% -2.6% -2.7% -3.5%-3.2%-1.3%-2.0%-4.1%-4.8%-7.3%-6.5%
  • E-commerce
 – – – – +10.6% 8.5% 12.9%11.6%21.6%37.3%24.6%21.4%23.7%15.6%
  • Large retailers
 n.a. 0.0% -3.4% -8.0% -17.3% -18.7% -16.7%-12.5%-4.5%-12.2%-14.2%-15.4%-20.3%-15.7%
Magazines Italy
  • Circulation**
 -8.8% -12.4% -12.3% -12.3% -13.5% -8.6% -9.0%-9.1%-9.3%-10.6%-11.9%-12.7%-11,5%-10.6%
  • Advertising

Print

 -12.2% -13.9% -15.2% -15.4% -13.1%  -8.2% -8.9%-8.6%-11.0%-6.2%-7.0%-6.1%-7.7%-4.0%

Web

 +4.8% +3.5% +2.1% +2.0% +3.0% 4.5% 4.0%2.1%2.5%1.7%-1.0%0.6%-2.6%-2.3%
  • Add ons
 -2.1% -11.9% -7.9% -6.9% -5.6% -18.2%  -10.8%-16.4%-19.5%-21.9%-27.7%-29.7%-26.8%-12.8%

* As of May 2019, GfK expanded its coverage panel by increasing the survey of e-commerce operators; as a result, the overall market value and the relative yoy differences were re-profiled and the details by channel were revised by merging book chains and e-commerce.

* Starting from 1H 2016, the % variations refer to the whole circulation market trends (newstands + subscriptions)

Sources
Trade book: GFK (value)
Magazine Italy: circulation, internal estimate (value) – advertising, Nielsen (value)