RETAIL behemoth Wal-Mart is tossing more than 1,000 magazines from the racks in its stores, sending yet another shock wave through the battered publishing industry.
Most of the magazines are small, and more than a few of the victims are titles that have long since stopped publishing, including Child, Celebrity Living, Elle Girl, Teen People, Suede, Shop Etc., Weekend and FHM. However, virtually no major publisher was spared.
Wal-Mart, which released its official purge list on Jan. 15, is believed to be responsible for generating more than 20 percent of all retail magazine sales in the US.
Wal-Mart had not returned calls by presstime.
The move is likely to hurt new magazines, which take time to nurture and develop a following.
But one magazine executive said it might actually help magazines that made the cut, because it will remove some of the clutter and give the survivors more visibility on the racks inside Wal-Mart’s 4,000 stores.
One of the biggest corporate losers appears to be Meredith Publishing.
Its flagship Better Homes & Gardens is out, as is its sister service magazine Ladies Home Journal. Family Circle stays, however.
Fitness, which Meredith picked up from the defunct Gruner + Jahr, is out, though rivals Shape and Self are still in.
Time Inc.’s In Style will remain, though its spin-off title In Style Home is out. The main Sports Illustrated will remain on shelves, but Sports Illustrated for Kids is getting the heave-ho.
Hearst’s Town & Country is out, as is Hachette’s Home and Metropolitan Home.
Condé Nast lost space on Wal-Mart’s racks for upscale parenting magazine Cookie, the urbane and sophisticated The New Yorker and the glitzy oversized W. Self magazine made the cut, but some slower-selling special interest spin-offs got the ax.
Several titles owned by Swedish publishing giant Bonnier, which less than a year ago paid $220 million for 16 Time Inc. titles, are being left behind. Among them: Parenting, Ski, Skiing, Yachting and Salt Water Sportsman.
Wal-Mart also tossed out some of longstanding titles, including foodie mag Saveur and Caribbean Travel & Life. And a number of business titles, including The Economist, BusinessWeek, Forbes and Fortune, are also getting the boot.
Perhaps not unexpectedly, a title aimed at the very wealthy – Robb Report – is losing shelf space.
The retailing giant prides itself on meticulously tracking inventory, but the purge list suggests there were a few glitches.
Several of the magazines on Wal-Mart’s hit list were shuttered titles that the chain hadn’t sold in months, but none of the wizards at Wal-Mart’s Bentonville, Ark., headquarters appear to have deleted the names from their system – a surprising oversight given several titles haven’t been around for as long as two years.
Even magazines that one might think fit with Wal- Mart’s conservative and working- class image were left out in the cold. Among them: Boar Hunter Magazine, Spirituality & Health, Cabin Life and Log Home Living. Even the Saturday Evening Post is being spurned.
Changes
Newly appointed Newsweek CEO Thomas E. Ascheim this week made his official mark on the newsweekly he joined in October, greeting staffers with announcements that the magazine is eyeing space downtown and that staff cuts are in the offing.
At the meeting, which was moderated by veteran media reporter Johnnie Roberts and attended by new Chairman Ann McDaniel and Editor Jon Meacham, Ascheim detailed several steps the magazine is taking to cope with the pain afflicting every major magazine title.
A spokeswoman confirmed that “a voluntary retirement incentive program was a possibility in the coming months.”
She also confirmed that the magazine is moving from its West 57th Street headquarters to lower Manhattan.
Said the spokeswoman, “It is no secret our lease is up in early 2009. We’ve been reviewing 100 Church Street, but we haven’t signed anything yet.”
An insider said that Ascheim told the staff that Newsweek was cutting its rate-base, the amount of circulation the magazine guarantees to advertisers, by 500,000 to 2.5 million, following a similar move made by rival Time magazine last January.
The spokeswoman would not confirm the circulation cut.