Bauer Media’s Take 5 launches monthly edition, with weekly mag continuing to run
Bauer Media’s Take 5 is expanding its print product, launching a monthly edition for the first time.
The new monthly edition will focus more heavily on lifestyle and will feature more real-life stories, puzzles and prizes. Take 5’s weekly edition will also continue to run.
The new magazine launches today
Today’s launch is the first for a real-life magazine in Australia in 20 years.
The new edition will have 84 pages and will be created by the same team at Bauer Media. It will cost $4.99.
Paul Merrill, editor in chief of Take 5 said the magazine launch was well “overdue”.
“It’s something they [readers] have an absolute obsession with and appetite for. Unlike a lot of other magazine genres, you can’t really get real life, puzzles and prizes on the internet in the same way,” he said.
“What we want to do is grow that market and give them even more of a voice to tell their stories.”
Merrill said it was a “huge investment” for Bauer Media, which had been months in the making.
He is not concerned readers will get bored with too much of the same content.
Merrill will remain focused on the weekly edition despite the new monthly title launch
“A great real-life story is a great real-life story. That’s something the readers can never get enough of. We’ve got to find a way to get more of them out there and our view is there’s really going to be an appetite for doing this on a monthly basis to add to the Take 5 brand,” he said.
But Merrill himself is still focused on the weekly edition, which he told Mumbrella several months ago had a strong future.
“The weekly is going really really well. It’s been increasing its market share for five years. We’ve won magazine of the year twice and we’ve continued to innovate and evolve the magazine. It’s going extremely well. We’d go daily if we could,” he said.
“Unfortunately some magazines have closed because the market just wasn’t there anymore but there’s some still very strong brands at Bauer which absolutely prove print is doing very well. There are markets that are growing, readership has been growing in a lot of areas. It’s an exciting time to be in magazines.”
The ‘bumper’ monthly is the latest addition to Take 5’s brand offering. The magazine now has a newsletter, a dating service and a podcast, all of which launched in the last few months.
Merrill has said the new monthly magazine has already generated a strong response from advertisers.
“We have had a good response. We have some ads in the first issue and going forward that’s something we are confident we are going to get more of,” he said.
“Magazine launches aren’t an everyday occurrence, so its nice to reinvigorate the trade a little bit and we’ll see how it goes.”
I have wasted two evenings completing puzzles both in a weekly and a Bumper issue only to find the entry coupon unavailable. I entered safely before midnight presuming that is when the closing time ends on the date given to send in your entry. I live in Victoria so the times should be the same.
I was so annoyed I have not bought a magazine since.
What time exactly is the puzzle entry form withdrawn please?
Thank you
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I have been looking but cannot find Take 5 Mega Monthly December issue coupon to fill in. It is always a problem finding the coupons, is there any easy way of doing it…Thats Life coupons are no trouble accessing..Take 5 often problems.
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