Dragon & Dungeon Magazines - the numbers tell the story

[MerricB]

The following figures are the average number of copies sold (Total Paid and/or Requested Circulation) for each year of Dungeon magazine, ending at the date given. Issue numbers from which this data came are written in parentheses.

Paid Distribution
Oct 2000 (#84) - 23,672
Oct 2001 (#90) - 24,663
Sep 2002 (#96) - 36,572
Dec 2003 (#107) - 48,238
Oct 2004 (#118) - 37,141
??? 2005 (#130) - 32,195
Oct 2006 (#142) - 31,408

What made 2003 such a good year? 3.5e? Shackled City? Something else?

It should be noted that in 2000 and 2001, Dungeon produced a lot of copies that were marked as "not distributed" - in 2000, 41,145 copies were made, of which 17,372 were "Copies Not Distributed". Whatever that means!

Cheers!

 

[MerricB]

Dragon Magazine
Here is the same information for Dragon Magazine:

Oct 2000 (#278) - 38,214
Oct 2001 (#290) - 49,627
Oct 2002 (#302) - 51,831
Oct 2003 (#314) - 68,585
Oct 2004 (#327) - 62,725
??? 2005 (#339) - 54,637
??? 2006 (#351) - 46,250

 

[frankthedm]

That was the time when Paizo was trying to bloat dungeon's readership with polyhedron content. Rather than place the RPGA polyhedron content in Dragon, where player driven content and minigames traditionally belonged, Paizo transfered paid polyhedron subscriptions to Dungeon subscriptions.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Dec 2003 (#107) - 48,238

That looks like December spending to me. So, I'd guess that if it was October instead, say, the number might've been more like 10,000 (or more) lower.

The general trend, though, I can't argue with.

I still feel like the decision was a terrible one, however. And I was not a subscriber to either of those mags.

 

[MerricB]

That looks like December spending to me. So, I'd guess that if it was October instead, say, the number might've been more like 10,000 (or more) lower.

The general trend, though, I can't argue with.

I still feel like the decision was a terrible one, however. And I was not a subscriber to either of those mags.

Those are average figures for the year ending with that date, not for the individual issue (those numbers are given as well, but I haven't included them).

Cheers!

 

[Aus_Snow]

Those are average figures for the year ending with that date, not for the individual issue (those numbers are given as well, but I haven't included them).

Oh.

Uh, I knew that! Really, honestly.

I know nothing about sales figures for any magazine. Plus, I can't read. . .

Nice weather recently. A bit of rain is nice. . .

 

[MerricB]

Nice weather recently. A bit of rain is nice. . .

Wish we'd had a lot more of it actually.

Cheers!

 

[Aus_Snow]

Wish we'd had a lot more of it actually.

Ain't dat da troof. :\

If'n I were a prayin' man. . .

 

[Monkey Boy]

Are we saying the numbers tell the truth in regards to the magazines fortunes or do we extrapolate it out to mean the numbers tell the story in regards to the sales of PnP DnD?

On the other issue. It rained on the weekend in Melb. It'll rain again soon... right?

 

[MerricB]

Just a couple more numbers;

In 2005 - 14,762 subscribers, 39,875 other sales.
In 2006 - 13,438 subscribers, 32,112 other sales (newstands)

9% decrease in subscribers; 19.5% decrease in newstand sales.

Subscribers are great because they give you a better income stream; newstand sales give visibility.

Cheers!