DC Thomson is proposing to close four magazines as part of plans that put 55 jobs at risk of redundancy.
The Scotland-based publisher is expecting a potential reduction of about 35 roles following the consultation period.
The roles affected in the new proposals are across audience and insight, data journalism, subscriptions, brand and marketing, magazines and Beano Studios, Press Gazette understands.
The four magazines facing closure are: quarterly culture title This England, fortnightly series My Weekly Pocket Novels, and children’s brands 110% Gaming and Unicorn Universe.
DC Thomson said these titles are “not commercially sustainable in the longer term”.
Several magazines “that were approaching the end of their commercial life” were closed in the financial year to 31 March 2024.
Remaining DC Thomson magazines include: Stylist, Beano, women’s magazine My Weekly and golf magazine Bunkered.
A spokesperson for DC Thomson said: “Following a strategic review, we are ceasing publishing four print titles – This England, 110% Gaming, Unicorn Universe and My Weekly Pocket Novels – which are not commercially sustainable in the longer term. Unfortunately, these changes will have an impact on the teams that support them and a small number of colleagues are now in consultation and will be fully supported throughout.”
Nick McGowan-Lowe, national organiser for Scotland at the National Union of Journalists, told Press Gazette: “It is unbelievable that only a few weeks after announcing £93.8m pre-tax profits, DC Thomson has now told 55 hard-working staff their jobs are at risk.
“Only last night I met with the NUJ chapel at DC Thomson and heard their anger after last year’s 0% pay award, and today’s announcement of a proposed 35 job cuts and four magazine closures will only add to the feeling that senior management don’t appreciate the value and experience of journalists across the business.”
In addition, as part of its strategy to protect print profits, DC Thomson is planning to create a new dedicated print sales function encompassing its newspapers’ newsstand and subscriptions income and its flagship print magazines.
The Scots Magazine, which claims to be “the oldest magazine in the world still in publication”, is being brought under the same “Local” structure as DC Thomson’s newsbrands including The Courier, The Press & Journal, The Sunday Post, the Evening Telegraph and Evening Express, and radio station Original 106.
As a result, The Scots Magazine staff will work more closely with the news titles’ features teams to launch a digital membership proposition around its output on Scotland’s landscapes, people and cultures.
DC Thomson’s most-recently filed accounts with Companies House, to 31 March 2024, showed like-for-like revenue from continuing businesses down £1m. Pre-tax profits were £93.8m, of which £92m was attributed to DC Thomson’s financial assets leaving £1.8m from the core businesses.
The publisher said in those accounts that its media strategy “remains on course and largely unchanged: to deliver sustainable growth by protecting profits and diversifying revenues.
“We will protect profits by managing our margins in print; diversify revenues through developing new audiences and products, and by evolving our capabilities… We are showing progress as we gradually pivot from casual purchase to a deeper direct-to-customer relationship, generating predictable recurring revenues through subscriptions and memberships.”
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