Sunday Telegraph print supplement Stella is closing following audience research with its subscribers that has led to a revamp of its weekend print package.
The women’s lifestyle and beauty magazine, which was introduced to the paper by short-lived former editor Sarah Sands in 2005, will still exist as a brand within the Sunday paper in print as well as online and with Stella Live branded events.
Sands introduced Stella as part of a relaunch of The Sunday Telegraph aimed at making it more appealing to women, according to The Independent, and although she only lasted as editor for nine months the magazine stayed in print for just over 16 years.
Press Gazette understands up to three roles have been put at risk as a result of the magazine closure.
The change is one of several within The Telegraph’s weekend print offering. The publisher said it has conducted extensive reader research and is trying to reflect the needs and interests of its subscribers and their “altered reading habits”.
The Telegraph’s focus on subscriptions, with a target of reaching 1m in 2023, will also see 32 new newsroom jobs created in 2022, it said. The brand surpassed 720,000 subscriptions in digital and print in December.
[Read more: Telegraph CEO Nick Hugh on how digital subs are safeguarding future of 165-year-old news brand]
The Telegraph’s Saturday magazine will be relaunched on 29 January with a “bigger format with an improved quality cover”. It will include a food and drink pull-out, a new column entitled What Is 60 For? by Jan Masters, and writers and columnists including special correspondent Harry De Quetteville, feature writer Guy Kelly, associate editor Gordon Rayner, ITV’s Richard Madeley, and food writer William Sitwell.
This follows a revamp of the Saturday paper’s comment and features pages in September which saw the return of the classic The Way of the World and The Peterborough Diary columns.
On 30 January The Sunday Telegraph’s own comment and features section will grow with a new weekly news review long-read and weekly interview slot.
In addition the Sunday paper will introduce what the publisher claimed would be “Britain’s biggest weekly puzzles section” at eight broadsheet-sized pages featuring more brain-training and children’s puzzles than before. The Saturday paper will also get a new four-page puzzles pull-out.
According to Press Gazette’s 100k Club ranking of the top English-language publishers by digital subscribers, The Telegraph is 14th overall and third among UK newspaper brands behind The Financial Times and The Guardian – although it is one of the fastest-growing in the whole list.
The Telegraph has kept its ABC print circulation figures private since 2020 but in December 2019, the latest figures available, the Saturday edition of the paper had on average 442,553 readers while the Sunday was on 248,288.
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