Good Health: the latest health victim
Good Health magazine is to close – becoming the fourth women’s health title to face the axe in the last month.
Editor Jane MacArthur claimed women were looking for “shallower sexier” titles and were getting their fitness fix from reality TV shows such as ‘You Are What You Eat’.
“The whole of the health sector is taking a bit of a slide so we are just following a trend. People are looking for shallower, sexier titles and I think a lot of television has picked up on this.
There is so much health on TV it has made the magazines redundant really,” she told Press Gazette.
“I don’t think the sector is dead and gone but I would bide my time before launching anything into that sector.”
Dennis Publishing relinquished its licence to publish Shape last month.
Highbury House closed Women’s Health and Fox Publishing pulled Healthy Living resulting in 26 job losses after the company went into liquidation.
Distribution problems were a factor in all the closures.
MacArthur said there would be no job losses on Good Health as owner Good Health Publications had several other projects on the go, including one launch which is due to hit newsstands in the next six months.
Good Health was founded in 1997; its November issue will be the last.
In contrast to the closures, the women’s health and beauty sector was up by 12 per cent on the last period in the recent ABCs. While Here’s Health posted a nine per cent year on year drop, bigger titles such as Healthy, Top Sante Health & Beauty and Zest recorded increases of 9.9,3.5 and 3.4 per cent respectively.
Next month Zest plans to celebrate its 10th anniversary with a revamp.
By Ruth Addicott
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