Haymarket suspends the net

Internet mag crash

By Linda Harrison • Get more from this author

Posted in Music and Media, 13th August 2001 12:59 GMT

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Haymarket is to suspend publication of its flagship Internet monthly magazine the net, blaming the advertising slump.

The 15 staff on the publication, which launched amid the dotcom frenzy in September 1999, were told of the move on Friday.

The final October issue of the magazine will come out on 5 September. Two editorial staffers are to be made redundant, while the rest of the team, including the other four editorial staff, will be shifted to jobs within Haymarket.

the net, which Haymarket claims was the top-selling mag in the area, has been hit by falling circulation (during 2000 the net sold an average of 52,600 copies per month), as well as advertising sales.

According to the net publisher Sian Rees, advertising revenue has dropped 45 per cent since last year in the crowded general monthly Internet magazine sector.

"The market as we see it continues to decline," Rees told The Register. "We don't believe it has levelled off."

The suspension, rather than outright closure of the mag, will enable Haymarket to re-launch the mag should the market rebound. "It gives us that option," said Rees, but "in the short term we can't see the market picking up". ®