Unhappy families

There will be a bawlin’ and a greetin’ in Hammersmith if the news about Immediate Media proves to be correct.

Hot on the heels of Bauer casting out Pregnancy and Birth comes the word that Tom Bureau has come over all Richard III with regard to two of his little charges – Junior and Practical Parenting.

There has been no response to emails or tweets asking about the two titles, but they have been removed from the Immediate subscription site and banner ads on the individual title sites now lead to dead space.

This leaves a once-crowded category considerably thinner, with Immediate’s Prima Baby (last year’s buy-in from Hearst), Bauer’s Mother & Baby, and Media 10′s Gurgle, the last men toddling. Given that the year-on-year ABC performance of these three titles was, respectively  -24%, -22% and -4%, Private Frazer wouldn’t put a great deal of money on any of them making it into long trousers.

Lack of Knowledge

Immediate Media have announced the, er, immediate closure of BBC Knowledge magazine.

At the foot of the magazine’s website you’ll find this bit of corporate bollocks:

The licence to publish BBC Knowledge Magazine was acquired from BBC Worldwide by Immediate Media Company on 1 November 2011. We remain committed to publishing a magazine and website of the highest editorial quality [my emphasis]

You wonder just how committed they were to a “website of the highest … quality” when they hadn’t updated their blog since March and their “latest updates” were posted in April.

 

Fish out of water

Murky waters in the supposedly tranquil world of fish keeping with the news that Immediate Media have left Koi magazine floundering on the bank (the ‘next issue‘ page on the website tells its own story).

The title was also the official publication of the British Koi Keepers Society who appear to have been kept less than fully informed about the decision to drop the title from Immediate’s roster. A post on the BKKS website says:

Yesterday afternoon (1st October) we were advised by Koi Magazine that they had ceased publication, and that issue 179 will be the final edition.

This morning our Chairman contacted the Editor of Koi Magazine to discuss the implications of this with regards to the contract between The BKKS and the publishers of Koi Magazine.  As a result of this it would seem we need to seek legal advice.

Private Frazer entertains the delicious notion of the koi carp keepers of Britain organising a boycott of all Immediate’s other titles: Radio Times, Good Food, Top Gear – you upset aquatic hobbyists at your peril.