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Launches And Closures: Press
Associated Newspapers is set to expand on the success of its free morning newspaper Metro. A deal between the group and Regional Independent Media will see the launch of Yorkshire Metro in Sheffield and Leeds on 8 January, and a franchise deal with Trinity Mirror in Scotland is set to reach completion next year.- Emap‘s Select magazine has closed, following a succession of declining circulation figures. In the latest ABC report the indie music mag lost 13% of its circulation base, a factor Emap put down to the changing nature of the music magazine market which has seen indie music move into the mainstream.
- Former Loaded editor Tim Southwell is set to launch a celebrity-based money mag called The Player. Features on the business approach of celebrities will be mixed with advice on spending money. The move follows the closure of his Switch2 website.
- A further glossy for “older” women is set to hit the newsstands next spring. H Bauer is targeting 25 to 40 year old women with good disposable incomes with its codenamed Project Helena. The older women’s sector had its first casualty earlier this year with the suspension of Aura, which lasted only three months (see Publishing Of Aura And Wedding Day Suspended As Parkhill Looks To Liquidation). But Bauer says its title will have no immediate competitors and will revolutionize the women’s monthly market.
- Bizarre has undergone a relaunch to make its content more appealing to potential advertisers. The title does well in copy sales, the latest ABC report recorded a circulation of 117,000, but it fails to attract mainstream advertisers. Its “shockability” is thus being revamped with a more sophisticated edge.