Shortlist Media has axed the weekly tablet edition of Stylist magazine after just over two years, blaming its demise on the closure of Apple’s online hub for publishers’ content.
The tablet edition of the women’s weekly title was averaging around 28,000 readers an issue.
But numbers began to dwindle when Apple Newsstand closed in September last year, the title’s publisher said.
Apple Newsstand, which acted as an online hub for publishers’ content, was heralded as the saviour of the magazine industry when it launched in 2011.
But some publishers complained that Newsstand hid their content and moved away to using standalone apps.
The last tablet issue of Stylist, which is also handed out free as a weekly printed magazine, was published on 29 March.
Its closure has not led to any job losses as there were no dedicated journalists working on the tablet edition, Shortlist Media said.
The company doesn’t publish a tablet edition of sister men’s title Shortlist.
Chief executive of Shortlist Media Mike Soutar said: “We’ve all been very proud of the success of the Stylist tablet edition which we’ve been publishing for just over the last two years. It has been a critical, commercial and technical success. In scale terms it’s easily been the most downloaded women’s magazine in the UK. And in technical and design terms it is a thing of beauty.
“Easy to use, quick to download and lovely to read. Its advertisers have seen great results and its many hundreds of thousands of readers over the months have valued it as a different and useful way to read the magazine they love on mobile and tablet devices. ”
“While the Stylist tablet edition has retained a loyal core of readers they are now starting to decline with no adequate way of recruiting new users.
“Having considered all feasible options for continuing the service, Shortlist Media has made the decision to cease publishing the edition.”
Shorlist editor Lisa Smosarski said in a note to readers: “The vast majority of downloads and readers have been on Apple devices, via the Apple Newsstand. But unfortunately, as you may know, Apple changed their strategy on tablet editions late in 2015 and abruptly closed the Newsstand area on the Apple Store. This has left publishers like ourselves high and dry, without a dedicated marketplace in which we can distribute our edition.”
Readers who can’t access a free copy of Stylist can get a copy posted to them for £1 a week.
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