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August 28, 2019updated 30 Sep 2022 8:15am

Net loss of seven UK print magazine titles over last five years, analysis shows

By Charlotte Tobitt

There has been a net loss of seven national print magazines in the UK in the past five years, according to Press Gazette’s own analysis.

Twenty-two print titles have closed in the UK since August 2014, while 15 have been launched.

Half of the closed titles were specifically targeted at women, such as parenting, wedding and celebrity magazines.

Last year saw the most UK print magazine closures (eight titles) and launches (six titles) of the five-year period.

Scroll down for full list of UK mag closures and launches

The analysis is based on reports of magazine closures and launches in Press Gazette and other industry news websites as well as online searches.

The figures do not include titles which both launched and closed within the period , such as men’s lifestyle weekly Coach (no longer in print) or women’s weekly OMG (which merged with another title).

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They also exclude mags which are produced by only one journalist, such as former FHM editor Ed Needham’s book magazine Strong Words which launched last year.

Regional magazine titles were also excluded, but Press Gazette estimates there to have been a net loss of 18 local titles.

Of the 22 national print magazine closures, three were the last holdouts of the lads’ magazine era (FHM, Zoo and Loaded) suffering from societal changes and subsequent falls in circulation.

Four of the titles (Total Politics, Essentials, InStyle UK and Glamour) said they were closing to enable their publishers to focus on online growth, while another three said they were closing to focus on another title within the company (Shortlist, Cycling Active and Cycling Sport).

Five of the closures (NME, Look, Soaplife, Reveal and Now) were explicitly blamed on falls in circulation making them no longer commercially viable.

Roughly a third of the new launches publish quarterly or bi-monthly. Bauer Media is the only major magazine publisher to have launched multiple titles over the period.

In the first half of 2014, the almost-200 UK consumer magazines audited by ABC saw an average circulation drop of 5.8 per cent year-on-year.

By June 2019 the average fall in print circulation across the industry was 6.24 per cent year-on-year.

Magazine CLOSURES in the UK from August 2014 to August 2019:

Title Publisher (at time of closure) Frequency Year launched Year closed
Total Politics Independent Monthly 2008 2014
FHM Bauer Monthly 1985 2015
Zoo Bauer Weekly 2004 2015
PC Format Future Monthly 1995 2015
Loaded Simian Monthly 1994 2015
Essentials Time Monthly 1998 2016
InStyle UK TI Media Monthly 2001 2016
Cycling Active TI Media Monthly 2009 2016
Cycling Sport TI Media Monthly 1993 2016
Marketing Haymarket Monthly 1931 2016
Glamour Conde Nast Monthly 2001 2017
Sport Wireless Group Weekly 2006 2017
NME TI Media Weekly 1952 2018
Look TI Media Weekly 2007 2018
Soaplife TI Media Weekly 1999 2018
Reveal Hearst Weekly 2004 2018
Smallish Remax Media Monthly 2014 2018
Shortlist Stylist Group Weekly 2007 2018
Star Reach Weekly Unknown 2018
Perfect Wedding Immediate Monthly Unknown (pre-2012) 2018
Brides Conde Nast Bi-monthly 1955 2019
Now TI Media Weekly 1996 2019

Magazine LAUNCHES in the UK from August 2014 to August 2019:

Title Publisher Frequency Year launched
The Week Junior Dennis Weekly 2015
Football Weekends Independent Monthly 2015
New Philosopher Poet Press Quarterly 2015
Vegan Living Independent Monthly 2016
Positive News Independent Quarterly 2016 (relaunch as mag)
Happiful Memiah Monthly 2017
In The Moment Immediate Monthly 2017
Pilot Bauer Quarterly 2018
Film Stories Independent Monthly 2018
Wireframe Raspberry Pi Bi-weekly 2018
Tribune Jacobin Quarterly 2018
TV Years Bauer Bi-monthly 2018
Simply You Bauer Monthly 2018
The Face Independent Quarterly 2019
True Crime Monthly Bauer Monthly 2019

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