New Year, Old Story

The news that IPC are going to lay off 150, or 8%, of their staff as part of “organisational changes” definitely puts the titles over at Auton Towers on the watch list.

Although IPC defenestrated as many of its underperforming magazines as it could in 2010, even it was unable to find enough mug punters to take all of its lame ducks. Couple that with IPC’s heavy dependence on advertising (there seems to have been little diversification into additional revenue streams) and you have major problems.

Of course, Private Frazer could be very wrong (it is my default position after all) and the cuts might be entirely because the US parent company needs to make big savings and the incredibly profitable UK arm has to share the pain. Yeah, as they say, right.

Watch this space.

Sylvia’s email to the IPC infantry can be read in full here. This is also where any new news will find a home.

IPC staffers with stories to share, please email private.frazer@hotmail.co.uk  Anonymity guaranteed.

Loss of Vitality

It probably comes as no surprise to anyone to hear that Vitality Publishing called in the administrators on Friday.

As soon as Private Frazer heard that Attitude had been spun off to form a separate company, leaving Vitality with Loaded and Superbike, it was pretty obvious that something was up. The (ex) directors of Vitality have a certain amount of form in this regard.

And so it proves. The questions asked over the fitness of the company that IPC were in such a hurry to sell to remain unanswered. As does the fate of the magazines and of the employees.

For some reason the word ‘bastards’ springs to mind.

ABC 2 – whither IPC

After failing to get rid of all of their clunkers in the first round of their fire sale, it seems likely that IPC will have another go this year. They really are becoming a multiple personality company, with at least four distinct characters – TV listings and soaps, five titles here giving them 30% of their total ABC; cheap women’s weeklies (losing sales as are the cheapos from Burda and H Bauer); women’s glossies; and specialist magazines.

IPC – get ‘em while you can

So the great IPC yard sale continues, with titles flying around the country to a variety of smaller publishers. This was obviously Sylvia Auton’s mission on her return from the states, but although we can see the results, we don’t yet have an idea of the overall strategic picture.

Just another average day in the gloom factory

Euromoney reveals £41.8m loss
Euromoney Institutional Investor said trading would become worse before it gets better

BBC Magazines set to cut 30 staff
Publisher is looking to reduce its headcount by about 30 staff in a bid to cut costs and restructure its operations.

Gimme shelter

With strong rumours swirling around of a high profile closure in the ‘homes and lifestyle’ category, I thought it might be useful to pick the bones of last week’s ABC figures and see how the major titles are faring.

Today’s unconnected stories

Dennis Publishing to launch digital motoring magazine

Disney prepares to launch UK parenting website

Talksport online magazine won’t ape Monkey

IPC buys Mousebreaker website

Interactive to capture 15% of ad spend next year

Ink on paper anyone?

Don’t panic! (20/06/08)

IPC in jobs freeze due to economic slowdown

 

In the foot

Shoot closes as weekly bid fails (Media Week)

You’ve got a title that’s just about surviving as a £3.10 monthly. It’s a kids’ title, so it’s not big in advertising although it’s got a few subscriptions. You relaunch as a weekly, so all your costs go up, but your advertising doesn’t. To sell as a weekly you have to cut the cover price so your per copy revenue goes down. But the kids (and their parents) who subscribed for a year as a monthly now find their subs running out and a bill for £65 turning up. What could possibly go wrong?

It also seems not to have had much attention from IPC. The ‘latest issue’ on the website is 14 March. If they can’t be bothered to update this in the closest finish to a premiership season either side of the border has seen in years, they don’t really seem to be trying.