18th April 2007

BROOKLANDS GROUP CONFIRMS IMMEDIATE CLOSURE OF POPWORLD PULP MAGAZINE

With great regret Brooklands Group today confirms the closure of Popworld Pulp magazine after just two weekly issues. Launched on a wave of optimism and goodwill from music and TV industry alike, after a gestation period of more than a year, Popworld Pulp was to have marked a reinvention of the consumption of music media for a generation that shares music like none before it.

The unpalatable truth, however, is that despite an extensive marketing campaign and a substantial news-trade distribution investment that saw 130,000 copies in stores in week one, sales have undershot by so significant a margin as to render the project unviable.

Says Darren Styles, Chief Executive of Brooklands Group:

“To be perfectly frank the magazine has bombed in a way nobody connected with it could ever have envisaged - every piece of research we did, every dummy we created and the concept in all its forms was fantastically received from first to last. The industry wanted it, the news-trade wanted it, the market was there according to every group we asked - but come the acid test the readers were absent. We had targeted a settle-down circulation of about 40,000 copies weekly, and hoped to achieve a launch sale of around 60,000 to see us on our way. But the data tells us we have achieved a little over 15% of that, which makes continuation impossible for us - however brutal a rush to judgement that may seem.

“Fact is, alongside a human desire to plough on and prove the market wrong, and support the incredible team of people that have pulled this project together, we have an overpowering responsibility to protect the wider interests of our company and its ten-strong portfolio of titles. This decision, however tough or striking, does just that. We have no regrets other than the outcome, in that an honourable failure is infinitely preferable to no attempt at success.”

Of the 14 staff employed on the magazine, ten will be made redundant with immediate effect.

There will be no further comment at this time.

Press contacts:
For Brooklands Group: Sue Lowry or Gillian Green, Magellan PR
Tel:  020 8875 2850
Email:  gillian@magellan-pr.com
Email:  sue@magellan-pr.com