Bowing to the inevitable
It looks like the recession is accelerating the continuing long-term decline in print circulations as 'Dennis', which might publish the majority of consumer PC titles in the UK, has announced it's closing 'Computer Buyer' - a PC mag it launched some 18 years ago.
Apparently 'Computer Buyer' hadn't really been a viable title for some time, with average circulation dropping below 10,000 in 2007, but a precipitous drop in even that meagre number last year led 'Dennis' to pull the plug. The March issue - probably published last November, as seems to be the way with print monthlies - is the last.
In a statement, 'Dennis' CEO James Tye said Buyer will merge with sister title 'Computer Shopper', but given that there is no sales team or full-time editorial team left on 'Buyer', it's hard to see what 'Shopper' will gain from this merger.
Tye claimed that 'Buyer' was originally launched to protect 'Shopper' from a rival launch: 'PC Direct'. And spun on that "[Buyer] was always a PC title that our competitors looked at in disbelief - delivering market-beating response for advertisers, at a yield comparable to titles with double the circulation," he said. "However, with a newsstand sale of fewer than 2,000 copies a month it has become impossible to keep publishing the title."
If Buyer was indeed market-beating, as Tye claims, then we certainly do look in disbelief at his decision to close it.
