Bauer Cuts Its Losses On Fledgling Men’s Mag
H Bauer’s struggling weekly men’s magazine, Cut, has been dealt a final blow as publishing bosses at the German magazine giant have decided to close the magazine during a 30-day consultation period.
The title, which aimed to provide male readers with ‘all the stuff that is worth knowing’ by dissecting the most amusing and interesting articles from the week’s media, will now be axed a mere four months from its launch in August.
The title was always destined to struggle, launching into an embryonic men’s weekly market and competing with the heavyweight Nuts and Zoo from IPC and Emap (see H Bauer Launches Cut With Major Advertising Campaign).
Despite a high-profile advertising campaign and a special launch price of 50p the title hit difficulties last month and was placed under review by Bauer (see Cut Could Face The Chop After Thirty-Day Review).
Sales of the magazine were understood to have fallen to just 10,000 copies a week, some way below Bauer’s target of 700,000 and a dismal comparison to both Emap and IPC’s offerings of over 200,000 sales each week. However, the company denied speculation that the title was to close, claiming that the consultation was an internal measure, and that the magazine was not about to fold.
A statement this afternoon from David Goodchild, managing director of Bauer, said: “Cut was an exploration of new territory for the company. The intent was to provide men with an alternative weekly read to the lad’s weeklies. The decision to close the magazine was not taken lightly but in a highly competitive and promotionally led market, commercial decisions have to be constantly reviewed and unfortunately there will be casualties.”
He added: “We have no intention of stopping our intensive development programme and would hope to redeploy many of the staff from Cut in other projects or existing titles.”
Cut’s closure leaves Nuts and Zoo to slug it out for supremacy in the men’s weekly market, but more competition could rear its head in the shape of Richard Desmond’s mooted KO! magazine. The title was registered in July in the form of a masthead that resembles Desmond’s long-running celebrity magazine OK!, although further details of the title have since failed to emerge (see Desmond To Knock Out Competition In Men’s Weekly Market).
H Bauer Publishing: 020 7241 8000 www.bauer.co.uk
Recent Magazine Stories from NewsLine Emap Appoints International Director To Boost FHM Brand Future Appoints Marketing Head For Aggressive Strategy Sugar Appoints New Editor Ahead Of Redesign
Subscribers can access ten years of media news and analysis in the Archive