IPC Magazines has finally abandoned its young women’s title, Eva,
after a radical revamp in March failed to halt flagging sales.
Eva, launched by IPC in 1994, has had a difficult ride in the highly
competitive women’s weeklies market. In July 1996, the magazine cut its
cover price and relaunched as a news-led magazine.
Earlier this year, however, IPC changed tactics and moved the title away
from its broad target audience of 24- to 44-year-olds to focus on the
18- to 24-year-old age group. IPC hoped to bridge a gap it believed
existed between teen titles and the young women’s market
But the drastic change in focus failed to raise circulation, with the
last round of ABC figures revealing a drop of just over 29 per cent year
on year and period on period to 152,800. The last issue will appear on
25 November.
Linda Lancaster-Gaye, the managing director of IPC’s women’s weeklies
group, commented: ’We were aiming to attract young women more familiar
with monthlies and introduce them to a weekly frequency magazine with a
sassy, sexy editorial mix. Unfortunately, the sales base didn’t prove
sufficiently large enough.’
In May, IPC carried out its first spring clean following its management
buyout backed by Cinven at the end of last year. It closed Vox from its
music portfolio, axed GMTV magazine, a joint venture with the contract
publisher, the Publishing Team, and sold the football title, Goal, to
Haymarket Publishing.
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