Popworld Pulp, the Brooklands Group launch into the weekly music market, has closed after just two issues.
The offshoot of the Channel 4 TV programme closed today after over a year in the planning.
In a statement Brooklands blamed poor sales of only about 9,000 in its first two weeks of publication.
It said: “The unpalatable truth, however, is that despite an extensive marketing campaign and a substantial news-trade distribution investment that saw 130,000 copies in stores in week one, sales have undershot by so significant a margin as to render the project unviable.”
Darren Styles, chief executive of Brooklands Group said: “To be perfectly frank the magazine has bombed in a way nobody connected with it could ever have envisaged.The industry wanted it, the news-trade wanted it, the market was there according to every group we asked – but come the acid test the readers were absent. We had targeted a settle-down circulation of about 40,000 copies weekly, and hoped to achieve a launch sale of around 60,000 to see us on our way. But the data tells us we have achieved a little over 15% of that, which makes continuation impossible for us – however brutal a rush to judgement that may seem."
The swift closure is strikingly similar to that of So London last month, which was axed after three issues.
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