ACP scraps Ralph magazine, and will exist only online
ACP Magazine is scrapping the print edition of its men’s monthly magazine Ralph after 13 years of publishing and will continue only online on the Ninemsn network.
The publisher said the monthly market had been knocked by the launch of weekly title Zoo in 2006 and the arrival of “cross category” men’s magazines such as Top Gear and Men’s Health.
ACP, which also owns FHM, said the Ralph brand would continue to exist through its website and on the mobile platform.
The July cover date will be the final monthly magazine, however it will continue to publish the Girls of Ralph special issues.
Some 13 ACP editorial and advertising staff will be affected by the closure of the print edition. And while some employees will be transferred, redundancies are expected.
Phil Scott, ACP group publishing director, said: “The history of the monthly men’s market is that the No. 1 masthead tends to change every six or seven years, dating back to the Penthouse and Playboy era, followed by Inside Sport and then Ralph and more recently ALPHA.
“The launch of Zoo as a weekly in 2006 and the subsequent arrival of cross category men’s magazines such as Top Gear and Men’s Health have steadily eroded the once dominant ‘lads‘ monthlies. The trend is evident all over the world and is the reason ACP re positioned FHM in May of 2008.”
According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations figures for the three months to the end of December, Ralph experienced a 4.8 per cent year-on-year fall to 63,155.
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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Shame to see it go. I thought it was actually one of the funnier ones. But the category has become so homogenised, everyone copying the other, one of them had to fall over eventually.
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Vale old friend.
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Sad day. We’ll miss you RALPH
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Nowadays younger blokes can access Ralph’s content online…
Will FHM hold it’s own?
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@Godwingrech has twitted something about keeping the magazine going 🙂
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great mag, much heritage, will be missed. 🙁
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Sad to see Ralph go. U will be dearly missed. It did hold its own for awhile but I’ve found a better mag right next to it, APOLLO. Hotter chicks ay and they have wolfmother and bear grilles in it!
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It’s an interesting move, and maybe a sign of the times. Ralph was a fun read but the content has definitely slipped in recent times. One wonders if the emergence of APOLLO, a classier more indepth format and the simultaneous decline of Ralph are connected?
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Nice to see some farewell love for Ralph here in the comments. Just checked out Apollo. I think they have a lot to learn. Not really sophisticated, classier, more in depth or different. There’s a formula to men’s mags that has worked for years – while it needs to change to survive, Apollo doesn’t look like the answer: http://apollomag.com.au
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RALPH wasn’t what once was at the end, but it looks like Vanity Fair meets the Victoria Secret calender compared to that Apollo mag.
@Mike: Yeh, I agree. Class is needed. One of the shoots was almost Penthouse style ay. The Jade girl was alright though.
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I mean, Dayna
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Anyone know when the July edition comes out?
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It’s weird no one has asked wow will content for Ralph’s new life online be sourced … given a lot of it is mag originated content?
Or will it be more of the ‘cheap and cheerful’ stuff that’s everywhere else. Top 20 funny videos, top 10 WAG pics from stock footage, top 20 worst world records and other stuff you can pay an intern to compile?
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It’s a sad, sad day when Aussie men don’t want to look at heavily airbrushed fake DD breasts any more.
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Hi Jacob,
Just heard back – the July edition goes on sale June 21.
Cheers,
Camille – Mumbrella
Apollo has about as much to do with Ralph’s closure as the Gulf of Mexico oil dissaster.
Zoo has cannibalised Ralph and the fact that you can access a lot of that generic contact online has led to his demise.
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RIP Ralph…a great aussie battler right to the end
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Very happy to see this old fashioned turd finally being being removed from my porch. Huzzah!
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Why, too, is Men’s Health being held up as the culprit? Men’s Health’s circ has gone virtually no where in a decade. It’s the lad’s category that crashed NOT the health category became a success. Proving Aussie blokes don’t want boobs OR abs.
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good bye ralph, i will miss you alot
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Andy, you either work for Apollo or have never bought another men’s magazine – or interacted with media in any respect for that matter – if you think that Apollo is in any way classy or more in depth than Ralph. Apollo is not fit to be a pimple on Ralph’s backside. It is a shamefully amateurish product that deserves to send its financial backers to the poor house. I want to hunt down everyone associated with Apollo and smack them silly for thinking it was a good idea. Truly appalling.
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