Print:

• Paid subscriptions (up 1.1 percent) and total paid and verified circulation (down 0.1 percent) are basically unchanged since the first half of 2011.
• But single-copy sales are down 9.6 percent.

Digital:

• Digital replicas (which essentially replicate the editorial and advertising content of the print edition — here are the guidelines) make up just 1.7 percent of total circulation. That’s up from less than one percent last year.
• Readers are downloading more digital editions — half of audited titles (258) reported over 5.4 million digital replica editions sold in the first half of this year. Last year, 232 magazines had reported two million digital replica sales.

ABC spokeswoman Susan Kantor says magazines won’t report non-replica digital editions (ie. apps) for another couple of weeks, but those are unlikely to move the needle:

“In the last period, only a handful of publications reported non-replica, so we’d estimate the figures wouldn’t vary that much.”

Top 15 magazines by digital replica circulation

1. Game Informer Magazine (GameStop): 1,218,634
2. Maxim (Dennis Alpha Media Group) 284,824
3. Cosmopolitan (Hearst): 185,673
4. Poder Hispanic (Televisa Publishing): 170,868
5. National Geographic (National Geographic): 134,656
6. Popular Science (Bonnier): 93,037
7. O, the Oprah Magazine (Hearst): 81,259
8. ESPN the Magazine (ESPN): 76,600
9. Nylon (Jaclynn B. Jarrett): 75,600
10. Parenting (Time Inc. Bonnier): 74,790
11. Wired (Condé Nast): 68,776
12. GQ (Condé Nast): 60,031
13. Men’s Health (Rodale): 59,536
14. Women’s Health (Rodale) :51,403
15. Electronic House (EH Publishing): 50,098

Gamestop told the Wall Street Journal that the tablets would become available on Friday. No information was provided on which version of Android they’ll be running (Honeycomb versus the brand-new Ice Cream Sandwich) or how much they will cost, although the report indicated that the Gamestop tablets would be priced at “typical sticker prices in competing stores.” Gamestop will include a tablet version of EA’s Madden NFL and DeadSpace games on the device and a separate remote control designed to work with the tablets will be sold separately.

Android hasn’t really made much of a dent in the iPad’s lead over the tablet market, depending on which market share purveyor strikes your fancy. Early devices like the Xoom are retrenching, while Samsung faces a host of legal issues pertaining to the Galaxy Tab.

Yet Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is hopeful that a new generation of devices can make some headway. The company predicted the launch of gaming-oriented tablets in an interview with paidContent earlier this year as well as a surge in tablet launches from traditional PC companies trying to get into the tablet game.

One flaw in Gamestop’s plan is that any serious mobile gamer is using iOS: Android gaming in general, but especially Android tablet gaming, pales in comparison with the quantity and quality of titles being developed for Apple’s platform.

In an industry with GamesIndustry.biz, Gamestop’s Tony Bartel said the company has started testing an Android device that will be centered around video games. Games are easily one of the most popular types of applications for tablets, but a touchscreen is not necessarily the best tool for creating games as compelling as those designed for the PC or gaming console.

Bartel wants to ship a tablet that will come with games designed around a mobile controller, although he didn’t share any specific details in the interview. Gamestop is a prominent force in video game retailing with over 6,500 stores around the world, which would give it quite a platform to promote a special-interest tablet.

Personal video game players haven’t been selling as well over the last couple of years as more and more high-quality games have arrived for smartphones and the iPod Touch. People generally seem to prefer one device that does everything as opposed to niche devices, which is why it’s hard to understand why anyone would use a tablet newsreader developed by a media company (the Nook notwithstanding).

But there are always some gamers who are willing to spend more on a premium experience. An Android tablet with a dedicated controller and support from top-tier game studios could be an interesting bet.

Google’s John Lagerling, head of Android partnerships for the company, told mocoNews last week that several companies are planning to make high-end gaming tablet hardware based around a pending version of Android as the holiday season approaches.

GameStop says that once it integrates Spawn Labs, which describes itself as building a “data center cloud gaming service,” it will be able to provide its users with “immediate access to a wide selection of high-definition video games on demand on any Internet-enabled device.” Impulse, it says, “provides a proven digital distribution platform that allows users to quickly and easily find their favorite games and download them to their Internet-connected devices.” The service will now be integrated with GameStop.com.

GameStop reported $290 million in sales from its “digital offerings” in 2010. That was up 61 percent year-over-year, but it still pales in comparison to the company’s overall sales, which were $9.47 billion. The company is clearly intent on boosting its digital position; over the last year, it has partnered with News Corp.’s IGN to license content from its network of sites and has also purchased game site Kongregate which is now prominently linked to from the top of the GameStop home page.

It all started when Kongregate, a games portal the retailer GameStop bought in July 2010, launched a new Android app this week for devices running the 2.2 or higher version of Android.

The free app allowed users to access all of Kongregate’s flash games — it serves as a portal for some 300 of these created by different developers. The app initially launched on the Market but was then removed less than a day later for violating Google’s terms of service, which include a non-compete clause.

There is still a question mark over why Google did this.

Is it, as VentureBeat conjectures, because Google itself is looking to do more in mobile social gaming itself and the success of another service might hinder that effort? Kongregate has 13 million users of its online portal, so it’s already a very strong brand in the space.

But Google lets other apps into the Market that compete with existing products (eg mapping apps), so that shouldn’t be the case. Yet given how many apps get approved (some have said much more quickly than on Apple’s app platform) why would one get singled out?

Regardless of what was behind Google’s reasoning, the whole situation might be a blessing in disguise for Kongregate.

First of all, Kongregate has its own retail vehicle to promote the site. Kongregate prominently features the Android app on its own web site, which can either download and then transfer to their phones, or access the download directly via a browser on their handsets. It will also be promoted via Kongregate’s owner, GameStop, both online and in its retail stores, says VentureBeat.

Second of all, Kongregate will be offering the app via GetJar. That’s not such a bad thing. Last year’s major app success story, Rovio’s Angry Birds (another game), took the GetJar route when it expanded into Android. By the end of December, Rovio had 15 million+ downloads on the platform.

On top of all that, getting ejected from the app store may well have generated a lot more viral coverage than joining it in the first place. Android’s app store appears to be in an arms race to catch up to Apple’s App Store. Current estimates are that there are 160,000 apps in Market already and everyone knows how hard it is to be heard in a crowd.

In an interview, GameStop SVP of digital commerce Shawn Freeman described the effort as part of his company’s strategy to establish its website as an “important portal and destination for gamers online.” He said the company wants to make the site a place where gamers can read about games and play games online, in addition to a site where people go to buy physical titles. As part of the effort, GameStop purchased online game site Kongregate in June. That site is now prominently linked to from the top of the GameStop home page.

The deal with IGN should also increase GameStop’s sales of physical games since IGN will now be including links to GameStop whenever it mentions a game that GameStop sells. IGN, meanwhile, gets to increase the reach of ads on its sites. Kara Swisher, who first reported on the arrangement, says the traffic of the two sites is being “combined” meaning IGN will be able to add GameStop’s 7.2 million monthly uniques to its 28.9 million — in ComScore’s eyes, at least.

Kongregate claims to host about 10 million monthly players who spend approximately 23 million hours per month on the site. GameStop says that the site will continue to be run by co-founders Jim and Emily Greer.

While it may look like a disconnect to add a free-to-play games site to an online and offline retailer like GameStop, the Grapevine, TX-based chain believes it can use Kongregate to help extend and cement its marketing reach to mobile devices. Plus, it’s a good way to build relationships with game buyers.

GameStop has been overhauling its business over the past year to try to build a significant revenue stream out of digital. Late last year, the company bought a stake in UK-based online gaming news, info and distribution platform JOLT as a way to test the digital distribution model of games, instead of just trying to find ways of “protecting” the core retail business. Release

GameStop lowered its Q409 guidance as a result. It now expects EPS for the quarter to range from $1.25 to $1.29 — well below the Q408 EPS of $1.39. Investors hammered its stock as a result, with shares down by more than 15 percent well before market close.

In a statement, the company offered up a few key reasons for the flat holiday sales: “economic weakness” in all the regions it operates in, “winter storms at peak shopping periods in December,” and “unexpected shortages” of coveted products like new Super Mario Bros. game for the Wii, the Wii itself, and the PS3.

But analysts like Broadpoint AmTech’s Ben Schachter pose another suggestion: That GameStop is actually starting to feel some pressure from challengers like Wal-mart and Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) — particularly since it says hardware (console) sales were down 8 percent — and the console-makers are actually reporting big gains.

“The way we see it, [GameStop] either lost meaningful share to [Wal-mart] and the online channels (primarily Amazon) or something does not add up from the first-party announcements,” Schachter said, in a research note.

Lazard Capital’s Colin Sebastian had similar sentiments: “Due to competitor promotions such as Wal-Mart

The new position is intended to help ensure that the $8.8 billion offline behemoth doesn’t fall too far behind in the digital gaming space, even as it continues to downplay the actual online threat publicly. More info in release.

Chris will be based in Los Angeles, and from what I know, plans to build a digital team and focus initially on M&A in the space, helping jumpstart Gamestop’s presence online. He has a sizably large M&A budget at his disposal. So those of you looking to sell off some assets (Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Games, IGN maybe?) or are a startup in the sector (Zynga, Playfish, Playdom etc), you know who to now ping through Facebook…

Most people only trade in their games after they’ve finished playing — which is typically well over two months after the official release, according to Wedbush Morgan managing partner and analyst Michael Pachter. That’s “well beyond the window for a full retail priced new game sale,” he wrote in the report. Pachter added that trade-ins could actually boost new game sales, since they serve as an alternative currency for players with limited disposable income (typically teens and younger kids).