Dennis closes Computer Buyer magazine

by Scott Bicheno on 12 January 2009, 14:10

Tags: General Business

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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.

 



HEXUS Forums :: 8 Comments

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That's a shame, this magazine helped the family choose a Mesh PC back in 2000/2001, which was an awesome machine at the time. 1.4ghz Tbird Athlon, 512mb DDR Ram, 19" Mitsubishi (still the best monitor I have ever used to this day)… Quality bit of kit, lasted f00king ages! Only died last summer.
I remember reading the mag YEARS ago before internet ordering took off properly.

That and Micro Mart used to be the mags to get for the latest prices on the pages and pages of mail order advertising they had.

I've seen it on the shelf a few times over the last handful of years and wondered why people still bought it.
micro mart was the bible, even in 99/00 it was a great quick reference for buying stuff, considering the alternative was to download a zip file with the prices from scan :laugh:
MadduckUK
micro mart was the bible, even in 99/00 it was a great quick reference for buying stuff, considering the alternative was to download a zip file with the prices from scan :laugh:

MM was a good mag. The articles used to be pretty good, but over the years they really dumbed it down and went mainstream. As well as raising the price well over it's value :(

I got Star Letter when I was 14 in there too :laugh:
Agent
I got Star Letter when I was 14 in there too :laugh:

How long ago was that then :mrgreen:


Never had the Computer Buyer but used to always subscribe to PCPlus for years until online reviews were getting better. Don't see the need to get them anymore..