US publisher Conde Nast announced the closure of four of its magazines yesterday including Modern Bride. The significance of this move is indicated by the 450 stories on Google News about the announcement. Two of the four closures are wedding titles. The move ends what some consider to be self cannibalisation – Brides, another Conde Nast title is expected to benefit from less competition.
Newsagents should take a walk down their magazine aisles and consider what would happen to sales with a more efficient assortment of titles in some overloaded categories such as weddings, fashion, music, crosswords and crafts. The question I ask is whether I could achieve the sale sales with a significant cut in range. The answer, of course, is yes. The bigger question is where is the sweet spot. The follow up question is how to navigate this with the three magazine distributors here in Australia.
Mark
You are correct. Newsagents should take a walk down their aisles and look at overloaded categories. I’d start with looking for publishers with several magazines virtually the same in a category. Can you believe one publisher will soon have 4 pool magazines on sale in Victorian newsagencies. Yes I publish 1 pool magazine. I also have a long family history in the newsagency industry.
Dirk, This is why newsagents should have a magazine czar controlling access to our network. Until we repsect ourselves, we will continue to be abused and efficient assortment not achieved.