ACP Magazines boss: ‘We will close some magazines down’
ACP boss Matt Stanton
New ACP Magazines boss Matt Stanton has used his first public outing to signal that he will be closing more titles.
The comments from Stanton – at a Sydney media lunch to spruik flagship title Australian Women’s Weekly – came just a fortnight after ACP closed men’s title FHM.
Stanton told the audience: “The global economy and fluctuating consumer confidence will affect our business, and your businesses. We can’t stop that happening. What we can do, however, is making sure ACP brands remain relevant to Australian consumers and advertisers going forward.
“In summary, what does this mean? We will continue to create, curate and commercialise our content in an even more targeted and progressive way. We will continue to launch new magazines as we will do with Women’s Fitness and reinvent old magazines as we’re just doing now with PC User moving into Tech Life.
“We will also make some tough choices as well, and there are tough choices out there. We will close some magazines down which we do not think are relevant going forward or we can see are commercially viable. We will have to do those choices.
“We will continue to invest in research. And we will continue to look to leverage our brands and communities across the relevant platforms.”
Stanton also talked about AWW’s growing strength on platforms including the iPad, and the average two hours per reader spent with the magazine. He said: “Advertisers’ emphasis on reach has been allowed to overshadow engagement ,which is magazines’ real strong suit.”
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Good play shifting the conversation from offline talk about “reach” to online talk about “engagement” maybe magazine makers will adapt after all ?
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Good on him. People’s tastes/moods change and magazines should reflect that. Bold publishers should kill off the deadwood and launch in the exciting categories. Men’s, teens, music and tech (in print form) appear pretty much dead in the water. High fashion, food and fitness appear to the zeitgeist at present. Take TV as an example – now there’s one medium that fast kills any under-performers. Magazines would be wise to do the same.
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“The global economy and fluctuating consumer confidence will affect our business, and your businesses. ”
No.
You’re going extinct just like the scribe monk, blacksmith and nightsoil collector did before you.
Your business model is finished. Adapt or die.
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When Nine sell ACP will they also sell the digital properties and these will then not be part of NineMSN anymore?
Tricky deal.
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I would think this has more to do with there being way too many mags out on the market in Australia? We have a lot more with less population than a lot of countries out there thats for sure. Time to cull and get with the times I would think. This line however is as overused as ‘surreal’ at the moment – “The global economy and fluctuating consumer confidence will affect our business, and your businesses.“ Sigh,,,,
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