iMag's last issue November

iMag's last issue November

iMag, published by IDG Communications, will cease publication after its November issue. iMag debuted a little under two years ago and has grown strongly, garnering a number of publishing awards and amassing a loyal following of some 91,000 readers* in the process.

The decision to close iMag arose from IDG's regular review of its ongoing development projects and opportunities. In this review iMag proved to have less growth potential compared with other development projects.

"iMag has done very well in a difficult market space," says publisher Bob Pinchin. "However its potential has proved to be limited in the finite New Zealand market, compared to the opportunities presented by a number of other new projects we have underway.

"Overseas, many internet-focused titles, including the high profile Yahoo Internet Life, have closed and the rest are struggling. We see no difference here. The advertising market is just not strong enough to sustain an internet focused print publication in the long term."

New developments under way from IDG include the recently launched WAM (Wireless and Mobile computing) publication, >>FFWD magazine and Biotech Unlimited magazine (both scheduled to launch next month), ICE Expo (scheduled to run in May next year) and The Absolute Beginner's Guide to Buying a PC (scheduled publication date November).

"And we're pursuing two more publishing opportunities, which we'll be unveiling in the New Year," says Pinchin.

"We have been successful in growing strongly in New Zealand over the last fifteen years through being constantly watchful of changes and trends in the market. We're always evaluating the performance of our publications to ensure that our efforts are directed towards delivering the best products for our audiences," says Pinchin.

"In iMag's case we realised that if we could not justify putting the effort into delivering a top class product it would be better to focus on areas where the information need and audience are more defined, so a more tightly focused information product can be delivered."

He says this gives IDG opportunity to better utilise staff who have specialist expertise in key areas of content and design.

"Inevitably we'll disappoint thousands of people who regularly chose iMag as their favourite internet magazine. Rather than giving them a product that we don't feel hits the high notes, we will be offering readers a special one-off subscription deal, and subscribers a special upgrade subscription at no extra charge, to the top rated PC World, in which they'll find many features they enjoyed in iMag plus a wealth of other great content."

The last issue of iMag goes on sale October 21.

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