Emap shuts Smash Hits after 23 years Tim Addington
Smash Hits magazine has been closed after more than 20 years of publishing in Australia, B&T can reveal.
The decision to close the bi-monthly magazine came as revenues from circulation and advertising continued to fall year-on-year as teenagers shun print titles in favour of the internet.
As well as Smash Hits, the publisher has also closed Skateboarding magazine. Staff at Emap were told of the decision on Wednesday and two people who worked on Smash Hits have been made redundant.
It is the first public act of Emap Australia�s new managing director Carrie Barker, who arrived from Emap UK in January.
Barker said the youth market wasn�t a priority for Emap Australia.
She told B&T: �It was a fairly simple decision. It has turned into a loss maker and that was because circulation and ad revenue was down year-on-year and the underlying trend was that both revenue streams were continuing to decline. This is because primarily the teen market is migrating in very large numbers to the website and away from paper-based products.�
The Australian edition of Smash Hits started in November 1984 as a fortnightly. According to ABC figures it had a circulation of 33,132 in January to June 2006 with a readership of 124,000 in December last year, according to data from Roy Morgan.
The decision to close Smash Hits Australia comes after the UK edition of the magazine was shut in February 2006 after 28 years.
Magazines aimed at the youth market face an uncertain future as young people opt to get their information via the internet rather than print products. In the UK many titles aimed at the teen market have invested heavily in establishing an online presence.
