Women’s lifestyle magazine Essentials is to fold with six jobs made redundant as publisher Time focuses efforts on “digital growth”.
The monthly title launched in 1988 with the final edition out this month.
Sales of the magazine were down 24 per cent year-on-year, according to ABC figures for the six months to June. Essential’s average total monthly circulation is at 78,073 copies in the UK.
Content from Essentials magazine is available online at lifestyle website goodtoknow.co.uk, also owned by Time.
Time said the decision to stop publishing Essentials is part of a strategy to “further invest in the highly-sought-after audiences of momentum mums and 40-plus – generationYnot! – women”.
This involves growing the Good To Know website, aimed at 18-45 year old women, and its monthly lifestyle magazine Woman and Home, aimed at 40-pluswomen.
As a result of the closure eight roles were at risk, all editorial, with two freelance and four staffers made redundant. The role of group editor of Essentials and Good To Know was not affected by the redundancies.
Managing director Roger Cummings said: “Good To Know continues to deliver double-digit growth, while woman&home goes from strength-to-strength in both print and digital.
“Through focusing on these two key brands, while at the same time incorporating some of the best bits from Essentials into Woman and Home, we can better serve these key audiences while growing our portfolio.”
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