News from the Newstrade

Ping! An interesting document appears in Private Frazer’s inbox showing magazine sales trends based on major newsstand retailers’ EPoS figures.

Sales volumes fell 6% year on year between April 2010 and April 2011. “But that’s all down to the long holiday” you cry – except that April 2010 was hit by the extended holiday that was the volcanic ash cloud, so was 5% down on April 2009.

Add these figures together and you get the result that April 2011′s magazine sales volumes were 10.8% lower than those of April 2009.

Didn’t T S Eliot have something to say about April? In fact, that same ditty has a couplet that’s even more appropriate:

And I was frightened. He said, Marie,
Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.

Not so Smart

Aceville’s SmartLife International has decided to end it all – another house and lifestyle magazine to hand back the keys and walk away.

Smartlife International is the lifestyle bible for a new generation of consumers who demand the finest things in every walk of life.

Unfortunately, they didn’t demand many copies of the magazine.

Phoenix Burns

After 2009′s death and rebirth, Cre8 Publishing have only been and gone and done it again, full details in this report from The Drum:

Football and rugby clubs are among the unsecured creditors owed more than £2m as Cre8 Publishing, one of the UK’s biggest printers of matchday programmes, is put into liquidation.

Liquidation documents show Rangers owed almost £500,000, Celtic £400,000, Arsenal £270,000, West Ham £103,000 and Spurs £42,000.

You wonder why the clubs trusted a company that went bust owing upaid royalties to other clubs – trusting, gullible, or stupid?