Popular Mechanics tops the 50 000 mark

Editor and publisher Alan Duggan said he was “thrilled” with the result, commenting: “Although January sales are traditionally quite robust, we were pleasantly surprised by our newsstand performance. Popular Mechanics was among the few magazines to maintain its circulation during the darker months of 2009, when economic gloom was zapping readership and revenues alike. We even exceeded our budgeted revenue by a healthy margin.”

Duggan attributed the magazine's stellar performance to a mixture of compelling content and new perspectives. “We've stopped talking about Popular Mechanics as a magazine. In keeping with RamsayMedia's 360-degree view, we offer a multi-platform brand that encompasses print, a vibrant Web site, social media, video, eventing (for example, last year's highly successful PM Inventors Conference), and one of the industry's best-performing Web letters (it reaches over 40 000 opt-in subscribers once a week).

“Popular Mechanics remains an excellent conduit for advertisers in pursuit of the intelligent, well-heeled and receptive customer, and a gripping read for its loyal and ever-growing audience. Look out for our February issue, with its articles on cool tech concepts for 2010, secrets of casino surveillance, digital film making, amazing gadgets, and much more. Our pay-off line says it all: ‘Be the first to know'.”

• Visit the Popular Mechanics Web site at www.popularmechanics.co.za and stand a chance of winning Oregon Scientific weather stations and Yale alarm systems.