Avusa Magazines is closing down SoccerLife 442, the soccer lifestyle title it has been publishing for the past seven years. News of the closure comes in a memo from Avusa Magazines GM Justice Malala to staff that was leaked to Bizcommunity.com. The February 2011 issue, currently in the process of going out on newsstands across the country, will be the final one.
“After months of deliberation, Avusa Management has today taken the decision to discontinue publication of SoccerLife magazine,” Malala noted in the memo yesterday, Tuesday, 18 January 2011.
“The title has been with Avusa for seven years and the decision to terminate publication was taken after much painful discussion. Although SoccerLife has faced tough times in the past the extremely tough economic conditions of the past two years proved too hard for the title to survive.”
The title changed frequency a year ago, moving from bi-monthly to monthly in the run-up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and while it achieved good subscription and retail sales, it failed to garner support from advertisers, Malala told Bizcommunity during a phone interview. Statistics by the ABC reveal a total paid circulation of 21 483 for the title, 9185 from subscriptions and 11 631 from single sale copies.
Read the full story on BizCommunity.