Imagine Publishing’s Fantasy Artist appears to have been rubbed out.
The magazine which started out as Corel Painter and later Digital Artist was only rebranded and relaunched as Fantasy Artist six months ago.
Judging by comments on the magazine’s forum page however, the change of emphasis doesn’t seem to have been greeted that enthusiastically. In fact, Imagine seems to have pulled off the happy trick of alienating current readers without attracting a new audience.
Ping! An email from an anonymous source suggests that Signature Publishing’s Fabulous Food has been axed; the Christmas issue will be the last.
We may be entering publishers’ traditional killing time – as the end of year issues are put off to bed, the titles are put out to grass. Keep your eyes peeled.
The Week Australia’s ‘period of consultation‘ was not as long as it could (or should) have been as the company went into voluntary liquidation on 17 October.
The title has simply stopped publishing.
There is no news as to whether staff will get proper redundancy or a statutory minimum, whether customers will get any refunds on what remains of their subscriptions or what creditors will receive. The cynical might think that this was a shoddy move to reduce the amount that the company needs to pay out to wind up its failed Australian business.
At the beginning of the month Dennis Publishing announced that its profits had risen 14% to £4.1m
Felix Dennis’s personal wealth is estimated at £500m
Shameful.
Pulse (the GPs’ magazine as opposed to the dead Scottish listings title) has announced a drop in frequency from 36 times a year to monthly.
Our … research showed that 70 percent of our target audience did not want to receive print based magazines every week.
It would be interesting to know how many of them will actually want the print product every month.
It seems like it might not be such a g’day for the employees of The Week in Australia, with a report in The Australian newspaper that ‘a period of consultation’ is taking place with staff.
Rumours about the difficulties facing the title have been around for a while, with both advertising sales and subscriptions stubbornly refusing to deliver what’s needed to be profitable. Parachuting in Mike Frey 18 months ago to try to sort things out doesn’t seem to have fixed the broader strategic problems that have been present since day one.
If closure does happen it will be the first setback in the seemingly unstoppable rise of The Week brand, and hugely embarrassing for the Dennis senior management who launched the Australian edition just four years ago. Whether any heads will roll is unlikely (apart, of course, from the poor saps working in Sydney).
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.
Private Frazer's Doomed Magazines 