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digital marketing title
Clobbered by downturn in high-tech advertising
By Jeff Bercovici
It looks like the Revolution has run its course.
Revolution, the year-and-a-half-old magazine about marketing in the digital age, is suspending publication of its U.S. edition.
An already-completed June/July issue will still go out to readers as scheduled, and plans are still moving forward for a special supplement-containing fall issue, says editor in chief Stovin Hayter.
Revolution’s editions in the U.K. and Asia will continue to publish as usual, and the web site for the U.S. audience will remain in operation for the time being.
The reason for suspending publication will not come as a surprise to anyone familiar with the goings-on in the U.S. advertising market this year.
Like virtually every other title that focuses on business and technology, Revolution has gotten clobbered by a dramatic ad slowdown that has been especially acute in the areas of internet and business-to-business companies.
"At the moment, the market will not support staff and regular publication," says Hayter of the decision to go on indefinite hiatus.
The bulk of Revolution’s advertising business comes from marketing services providers like Doubleclick and Engage, as well as from agencies and online media companies, says Hayter.
"Obviously, everywhere you look the market is pretty crappy at the moment," he says, noting the hardships that Business 2.0 and magazines of its ilk have endured in recent months. "All of our advertisers are affected by the internet in some way."
Hayter says the hope is that Revolution will resume its bimonthly publication schedule once the ad climate warms up again.
Meanwhile, Revolution’s owner, the U.K.-based Haymarket Group, continues to expand its U.S. presence, as evidenced by its recent acquisition of two medical-industry trade publications to complement Monthly Prescribing Reference.
Overall, it appears that 2000 was not an auspicious year to launch magazines with rotation-themed titles.
Another magazine called Revolution, an electronic music title published by Imagine Media, was shuttered earlier this year after only a handful of issues.
And Revolver, a general music title from Harris Publications which launched last May, has had trouble building circulation.
June 1, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Jeff Bercovici is a staff writer for Media Life.
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