Off the back of a shaky outcome for print products across the board last Friday, Pacific Magazines has announced a portfolio shake up, which involves the closure of Your Garden, the move of Bride to Be and Practical Parenting to digital only under a new name, and the loss of license to publish Prevention, with a new publisher to take over.
Practical Parenting and Bride to Be will continue as pure-play digital brands, with Bride to Be relaunching as mywedding.com/au in September. The last print issue of Practical Parenting will be on sale 1 September with the last issue of Bride to Be on sale now.
Over the last 12 months, the publisher has turned its focus to digital, investing in its flagship multi-platform brands including New Idea, Better Homes and Gardens, marie claire and Women’s Health.
All of these titles suffered a decline in sales year on year in its print form, with New Idea falling 14.5 per cent, Better Homes & Gardens declining just 0.1 per cent to 314,988 circulation, marie claire dipping 10.3 per cent to 73,346, and Women’s Health falling 19.6 per cent.
Your Garden will also cease publishing entirely, with its final Spring Edition on sale 25 August.
The licence to publish Prevention will revert back to Rodale, effective January 2017, with the December/ January issue (on sale 7 November) the last published by Pacific Magazines. Rodale will be announcing a new publisher for Prevention in the Australian market soon.
Pacific Magazines CEO Peter Zavecz said, “The decision for Pacific to cease publishing these titles in print has not been an easy one. We are very sad to say goodbye to the talented staff and friends whom are affected by today’s changes.
“I would like to sincerely thank our staff for their contribution to these brands.”
Pacific Magazines also said it would be working with affected teams to transition as many staff as possible into new roles within the business.
Zavecz added, “Our portfolio changes are designed to focus Pacific on its key consumer brands and categories and to build a stronger business, more able to provide outstanding multiplatform content experiences for our audiences and successful outcomes for our clients.
“The decisions announced today are part of a transformation process at Pacific which creates a more sustainable, future focussed business with stronger competitive advantage.
“Our strategy is about adding value to the audiences we target. We now believe we can best meet the demands of our bridal and parenting audiences with digital-only business models.”
“Yes, the market is challenged, and we’ve not lost any focus in ensuring our print products are the best they can be in terms of delivering value, but we’re also aware our advertising partners want to engage with our readers across all platforms,” he added.
“It’s really up to the magazine industry now to continue to drive the total audience metrics, because it’s a multi-dimensional sell now. We don’t exist to print a magazine, we exist to engage deeply with audiences who are passionate about special interests.”
