Title Fell Victim To Shorter News Cycle
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday January 25, 2008
WHEN James Packer relinquished control of his family's media empire to the private equity firm CVC Asia Pacific last year, staff knew not only their Christmas hampers were under threat.
The sale sparked speculation that the privateers, having none of Kerry Packer's emotional attachment to the business, would rethink publications including The Bulletin, the weekly news magazine which has undergone a steady decline in circulation over the past decade against rising competition from the internet.Yesterday the new owners wielded the axe. Media watchers said the demise was symptomatic of the struggle of news magazines worldwide: weekly titles are especially hard hit by the faster news cycle. "A lot of the information that The Bulletin covers is published daily, hourly, elsewhere, so the outlook has become much more difficult," said the media analyst Steve Allen, of Fusion Strategy.The shift was reflected in its circulation, which slumped to 57,039 copies last September, compared with more than 100,000 in the mid-1990s. With readers deserting, advertisers followed suit. ACP is believed to have lost more than $5 million a year on the title. "The magazine has simply not been commercially viable for some time," said the ACP boss, Scott Lorson. He had been weighing up various options, including turning it into a monthly, or an online publication.A sale of the masthead was also on the cards, but three parties running the ruler over the title could not make the numbers stack up, sources said.Competitors including Fairfax Media, publisher of the BRW magazine, Kerry Stokes's Pacific Magazines and Time Australia said yesterday they had not been aware the title had been for sale. The news prompted Mr Stokes's camp to consider a bid. The Bulletin's 20 staff were told about the axing yesterday morning. Some journalists may be moved to other ACP titles, with others being made redundant.
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald
