This report, from Amanda Meade at Guardian Australia on the closure of Picture and People:
Softcore magazines the Picture and People to close amid sale ban and falling circulation
Exclusive: Hundreds of service stations recently banned the magazines from sale, saying they demeaned women and girls.
Australian men’s magazine the Picture and the 69 year-old People magazine will close at the end of the year, ending decades of printed weeklies featuring topless models and readers’ sex stories.
Publisher Bauer Media was forced to axe the magazines after retailers lined up to ban them from sale at service stations; and readership fell to 0.02% of the population over 14 for People magazine and 0.01% for The Picture. They are already banned from sale in supermarkets.
“Discussions to close the Picture and People magazines have been taking place, as the magazines have lost ranging [visibility], which has affected their commercial viability,” a spokeswoman for Bauer Media told Guardian Australia.
“As closures impact a number of people, including some staff and suppliers, they need to be well considered and timed appropriately.
“The magazines will be closing at the end of the year and we’re working closely with staff to find suitable redeployment.”
I expect minimal impact on the newsagency channel from the closure of these two titles.
We sell 8 or 9 copies to the jail every week, I guess the inmates will have to find another way to amuse themselves.
How ironic that People mag got pulled after 69 years !!!
With them bring booted out of servos and supermarkets, this would have been an opportunity for Picture and People to re-engage with newsagencies….truck drivers and others would appreciate somewhere to buy them, surely
We still have customers that buy these and other adult titles.
I jokingly refer to them as “off-grid porn” simply because google can’t track this as search history
Sorry to see that it’s come to this, wish the best for all of your employees for the future
These activists don’t seem to realize any of the consequences beyond their own selfish desires and opinions
There is nothing wrong with women showing their bodies and being proud of it! This allows to be empowered and in control of their sexuality! This is slut-shaming and misogyny at it’s worst. If people don’t like the sight of a woman’s body then that’s their inherent misogyny and an extension of rape culture
The activist organization that is behind the drive to stop People and Picture magazines being sold at petrol stations is “Collective Shout”.
The mags were previously hounded out of supermarkets some years ago by campaigners, and this was probably the next logical step for the #metoo campaigners.
Purely from a business point of view the time had probably come for these magazines to go due to the year on year plummeting sales – Bauer seem to have latched onto the campaign to stop the petrol stations selling the mags as an “out” for them to cease publication.
As time went on, these mags seemed to really invite the outrage from feminist causes and there is no doubt that they contributed to their own downfall in how they treated women in particular to some of the language used, there appeared to be little respect for the women they showed in the photos or wrote about.
Personally although I liked the pictures some of the words that accompanied those pictures made me wince.
But what now ? years ago there were many titles known as “lads mags” the likes of FHM, Ralph, Front, Zoo, Loaded, Nuts – all gone.
All victims of the internet as much as the campaigners.
Are the campaigners now going to turn all their attention to the porn sites on the net ?
An interesting development has caught my eye recently………
There is a new subscription-only internet magazine called “Shagmag” which is being run by a model who also appears nude in the internet only publication.
How will the metoo crowd tackle this one ? or is it now ok when these magazines are digital and being run by women ?
What the hell is wrong with buying magazine where women are showing off there stuff at own will and us guys checking them out ???? After all we are human and sexual desires are all a part of being human isn’t it and what about attention thats another human emotion just like happiness but instead all you toffee nose type people would rather we have magazines that show a person how to decorate there house or how to build a herb garden how fucking boaring and pathetic is Australia becoming just really disappointed at how anal and dull this country has become