Popworld Pulp An Almighty Flop
Channel 4’s Popworld spin-off magazine, Popworld Pulp, has folded after just two issues.
The new music magazine had entered an already volatile market, where many titles had seen their circulations slide, and several titles, like the once unrivalled Smash Hits and Xfm’s X-Ray had closed in recent years (see Smash Hits To Close As Music Fans Move Online).
Popworld Pulp‘s publisher, Brooklands Group, has made ten staff redundant following the closure, which happened after launch sales of just 9,000.
Brooklands distributed 130,000 copies of the first issue last week, aiming to sell around 60,000 copies before reaching a settle-down circulation of 40,000.
Darren Styles, Brooklands’ chief executive, told MediaWeek that despite a year in planning and research, with £1 million investment, and the promotion of 100,000 sample editions ahead of launch, the target audience of 16-21-year-olds had steered clear.
“To be perfectly frank the magazine has bombed In a way nobody connected with it could ever have envisaged,” he said.
He described it as “an honourable failure”, saying “we have an overpowering responsibility to protect the wider interests of our company and its portfolio.”
The closure deals a blow to Brooklands’ consumer publishing ambitions as the group folded four other Channel 4 tie-in magazines, including Property Ladder and You Are What You Eat, at the end of 2006 to plough resources into the launch.
Brooklands now has just one news-stand title, A Place In The Sun, and runs an accompanying exhibition. It continues to publish a range of customer magazines.
The magazine was linked to Channel 4’s Popworld show and was the first weekly music magazine to be launched in more than 20 years.
Brooklands Group publishing director Mark Elliott had said the new magazine aimed to attract some of the 750,000 viewers that tune into Popworld every week by offering a broad range of music genres.
A multi-million pound integrated marketing campaign was set to launch and the title was to be promoted in the Channel 4 and E4 weekly TV show and on digital music websites, posters at music venues and on radio (see New Music Magazine Enters Volatile Market).
At the most recent consumer ABCs, a mixed bag of results were revealed. Leading titles like NME, Q and Mojo saw year on year circulation slumps. Weekly title NME dropped around 5% from its total year on year, whilst other IPC brand, the monthly Uncut, shed almost 15%. The titles now command circulations of around 73,000 and 94,000 respectively.
Market leader, Emap’s monthly Q, saw a year on year decline of almost 17% leaving its total figure at a little over 140,000, whilst Emap’s monthly Mojo shed more than 5% from its final figure (see ABC Results Jul-Dec 2006:Q Mag Remains King Of Music Sector Despite Circulation Decline).
Brooklands Group: http://www.brooklandsgroup.com