Title Closure Shrinks News International’s Magazine Portfolio
Inside Out, News International’s monthly home and style magazine, is to close less than a year after its launch, due to competition in the sector.
The title, which has never released circulation or readership figures, was launched in March of last year by News Magazines, a division of News International.
At the last ABC release, the home interest sector recorded a mixed bag, with some titles losing issues and others boosting their circulation (see ABC Results Jan-Jun 2006:Home Interest Magazines Report Mixed Bag Results).
The decision to close Inside Out leaves just one consumer magazine title, Love It!, in News International’s magazine division. The title recorded its first ABC of 405,441 last year (see ABC Results Jan-Jun 2006:Mixed Results Revealed For Women’s Weekly Market).
Less than two weeks ago, the company shelved plans to publish a new women’s weekly, which was being developed under the name Project Dannii. News Magazines had suffered a series of delays in launching the title, which was first meant to hit the market last September (see News Magazines Shelves Project Danni).
Had the magazine been launched it would have entered a crowded marketplace, with IPC Media today launching its preview copy of Look, its biggest magazine launch ever, in a joint venture with Groupe Marie Claire (see Look Poaches Staff For Editorial Team).
Last November, News Magazines took the contract for BSkyB’s Sky Magazine from publisher John Brown. This was the first customer magazine win for the division, and it will take over the title this summer (see News International Company Scoops Sky Mag Contract).
Camilla Rhodes, chief executive of News Magazines, said: “Closing any title is always the last course of action but our business must focus on markets that can yield strong returns.
“The circulation success of our weekly launch Love It! and winning the largest publishing contract in the UK, Sky, points the way in which our business must develop. We will continue to focus on scale and frequency for our newsstand launch strategy.”
The latest consumer magazine ABCs are released on Thursday February 15, with NewsLine providing comprehensive coverage of the results for all of the major sectors.
News International: 020 7782 3922 www.newscorp.co.uk