Newspaper and magazines are often accused of putting their own twist on circulation and readership numbers, but the Phoenix’s ‘Fit to Print?’ recently* had an interesting angle on the latest ABC results for Irish magazines.

The Phoenix says that the ‘devil is in the detail’, showing that Magill has an average circulation figure of 14,985 but only 4,672 copies are sold at full price tag of €3.25.

Meanwhile about two thirds of Business & Finance’s 15,638 circulation is sold at half price or less and just under 3,000 more are just given away as free subscriptions.

The Dubliner also sells less then one third of 10,038 at under the cover price – 3,000 are sold at less then 50%, 2,410 at less then 10% of the cover price, and 1,350 are – again  – just given away.

The Phoenix says (and the ABC report confirms) that its 18,154 circulation includes “no discount sales or free copies”. ABC’s ‘Island of Ireland Report’ for December 2006 includes ABC certified magazines, newspapers, and websites, it can be viewed in PDF form here, or by visiting abc-ireland.ie.

(*Phoenix dated Febuary 23 2007 – apologies for the lack of Blurred Keys updates in recent weeks)