News Mags ditches Inside Out but plans more launches

News Magazines has closed Inside Out, its glossy interiors and exteriors monthly two weeks after pulling the plug on proposed women’s weekly Project Dannii, but indicated it would continue news-stand launches this year.

After the scrapping of Project Dannii, the publisher said it would concentrate on producing Sky, the monthly contract magazine for BSkyB, awarded to News Magazines in November. But News Magazines has not ruled out further launches this year. The publisher said in a statement that it ‘decided that the time and money investment required in this sector could be better channelled towards a less niche market’and that ‘every effort’would be made to offer ‘all affected staff alternative employment on planned news-stand launches for 2007 and on Sky”. Inside Out employed 16 journalists.

Camilla Rhodes, chief executive of News Magazines, said: ‘Closing any title is always the last course of action but our business must focus on markets that can yield strong returns. The circulation success of our weekly launch Love It! and winning the largest publishing contract in the UK, Sky, points the way in which our business must develop. We will continue to focus on scale and frequency for our news-stand launch strategy.’Inside Out was launched in March 2006, the second title to come out of News International’s magazines division. It was backed by a £6 million marketing campaign to drive the title in a crowded niche sector, which has suffered from falling circulation. Last month, the Channel 4 branded 4Homes published by Media Ten, also shut its doors.

News Magazines’ Sunday Times-branded title was edited by Lisa Hermanis and hoped to entice male readers into traditionally female territory, with its added exteriors dimension to an interiors magazine. It had a ‘settle down’circulation target of 100,000 within six months of its launch, but had yet to publish an ABC figure. Fledgling magazine stables of the national newspaper groups have suffered in the last year. Associated Press pulled its weekly women’s magazine, You, from newsstands after sales slid to 20,000 last year. The title was also given away free with the Mail on Sunday two days previous to being on the news-stand for £1. News International’s Love It! has had a better time, aided by price slashing to 30p and advertising in The Sun and News of the World – helping it reach its target ABC figure of more than 400,000 from January to June 2006.