What determines reader-per-copy patterns for UK magazines?
This classic paper, given at the 1993 Worldwide Readership Research Symposium in San Francisco, investigated the patterns of magazines readers-per-copy (rpc) that is, the relationship between circulation (ABC) and readership (as measured by the National Readership Survey). The main objective was to improve understanding of the determinants of rpc and the causes of fluctuations through time. It is based on analyses of data for 170 magazines for the period 1981-1991. The paper was summarised as follows: There is no simple relationship between circulation and readership. There is a natural expectation that when circulation of a magazine changes its readership should move in the same direction and to a similar degree, but this is too simplified a view. So is the understandable expectation that two superficially similar magazines should have the same average rpc. I have drawn up a list of 20 factors which can influence rpc. Three of these concern the way the NRS measures readership and the
