Loss of Appetite

Anthem publishing’s Taste Britain – “The UK’s only regular magazine dedicated entirely to British food and drink” – has had its chips.

Unenthusiastic

Word reaches Private Frazer that Landrover Enthusiast magazine is about to go permanently off road. Tata.

Don’t Panic! (16/03/10)

Still gloom and doom for US B2B publishers according to the latest American Business Media figures as reported in Folio:  Last year advertising pages for trade magazines fell 28.6% compared to 2008, with estimated ad revenues down 24%.

One for Godfrey’s sister Dolly

I hope this is a joke by someone. It demonstrates an almost heroic sense of the absurd.

The owner of the Lady, the 125 year-old weekly “journal for gentlewomen”, is understood to be working on a bid to acquire the assets of Reader’s Digest UK (Grauniad)

Obviously The Lady feel they can bring their superior marketing and ad sales expertise to the rescue of RDUK.

A couple of figures:

• The Lady, current active paid circulation 28,362. Active paid circulation three years ago: 31,752
• Reader’s Digest, current active paid circulation 439,442. Active paid circulation three years ago: 662,417

Down, down and further down

It’s been an interesting few days for B2B results, so let’s summarise the good news:

UBM’s print division: revenues down 23.1% to £165.8m and operating profit down 62.8% to £8.9m

Informa: operating profit down 11% to £145.7m in 2009 on revenue down 4% to £1.2bn

Centaur: revenue fell 24%, a loss before tax of £1.7m in the last six months of 2009

RBI: operating profit fell to £89m in 2009 from the £126m the previous year, a 35% drop in consistent currencies. Revenue was down to £891m last year from £987m in 2008, a fall of 18% in consistent currencies.

DMGT: revenues from the group’s B2B operations in the quarter were £186 million, 20% lower than for the corresponding period in 2008. Revenue from DMGT’s Euromoney business fell by 16% to £71 million.