Australia’s longest running magazine, The Bulletin, has been shut down by publishers ACP magazines after more than 120 years, with plummeting commercial revenues and the internet blamed for its demise.
The 30-strong staff at ACP’s Park Street headquarters were told of the decision by chief executive officer Scott Lorson at 10am this morning, just minutes before a press release was issued to media.
The Bulletin, which first started publishing in 1880, has suffered from plummeting circulation in recent years, with its latest Audit Bureau of Circulation figure standing at 57,039 in September last year, down from highs of over 100,000 in the mid 1990s.
It final issue, which was a special on Australia Day, hit newsstands yesterday (23 January).
Along with the print tile being shut, the magazines website will also go, ending 128 years of The Bulletin’s name.
It is not known if ACP sought to sell off the title, and a spokeswoman refused to comment further.
Rumours it was close to being axed circulated in the last six months of 2007, but ACP at the time denied it had any plans to close it, blaming the speculation on jealous rivals.
“They [competitors] think it’s fun to have a go at The Bulletin, but it’s here to stay. We have recently reinvested in it with better quality stock and a redesign of fonts and formats. It’s pretty much bucking the business sector trend where most magazines’ circulation go up and down like a heart beat,” the spokeswoman said.
The falling circulation of the weekly news magazine was a trend consistent with that experienced by other weekly news and current affairs magazines globally and the rise of the internet, ACP claimed in the statement.
One factor that could have contributed to the decision was the magazine's ageing readership. Figures on the magazine's rate card show that 45% of its audience was aged over 50.
However, it should also have been an attractive audience to advertisers with 62% listed as being in professional or managerial roles, and 61% earning salaries of more than $60,000.
In addition to its ABC circulation of 57,039, it claimed a wider readership of 269,000. And its online audience was bigger than its print one, with a survey last June showing The Bulletin website had 367,306 unique browsers.
Explaining the decision to axe The Bulletin, Lorson said: “We have invested heavily in the title with top editorial, photographic and design staff who have been devoted to making The Bulletin the best of its genre. However, despite our best efforts, the magazine has simply not been commercially viable for some time. With limited prospects for improvement, the time has come to make a very tough decision.
“This is a sad day for all of us at ACP Magazines. The Bulletin has been an institution in Australian publishing and has provided its loyal readers with the best quality, in-depth news and current affairs analysis in the country. The Bulletin has often set the political agenda, broken many important stories and won many awards for journalism over the years.”
Ian Law, CEO at PBL Media, said the decision to close The Bulletin had been made reluctantly.
“We all had a sense of pride in the title. John Lehmann and his editorial team produced a top quality publication and should be commended. But the reality is that the publication has been running at a loss for a number of years and we could see no prospect of this trend being reversed.
B&T Today understands that some staff are being offered redundancy packages, while roles at other ACP titles will also be sought.
