Lacklustre sales and stay-away advertisers condemn `Himself'

Himself, Ireland's men's magazine, has ceased publication after two years. The magazine was published by Mr Kevin Kelly, who also publishes Image, Image Interiors, Checkout, and Food & Wine magazine, as well as the US-produced World of Hibernia.

Sales figures for Himself never reached the sort of levels necessary to make a monthly glossy viable.

The magazine had no ABC figures - the audited figures that measure circulation - and was not part of the JNRR readership survey, but according to Image Publications' managing director, Ms Jane McDonald, it sold an average of 10,000 copies per issue.

Irish magazines are not big sellers but, to put this level of sales in context, Phoenix would regularly sell in excess of 20,000 copies, as would Image magazine.

The big publishing success story of last year, VIP, now tops 40,000 copies per issue.

According to Ms McDonald, the company spent £250,000 (€317,430) introducing the title and advertised it sporadically mostly on radio and in other publications.

She admits that it really needed more intense promotion "because the market needed to be educated about men's magazines".

Even in its short two years on the newsstands, Himself went through several changes which would indicate that the magazine did not have a clear direction from the start.

In its first year, it was published bi-monthly, which Ms McDonald now acknowledges was a mistake.

"It meant we lacked visibility on the newsstands," she says. To counteract this, the magazine went monthly in its second year.

It changed editors twice. Irish journalist Mr Daire O'Brien was the launch editor and stayed for the first five issues after which British men's magazine editor Mr Francis Cottam was brought over as editor on a one-year contract.

His impressive CV included editing Men's Health and FHM, two leading men's titles. But British experience can go only so far in an Irish magazine context, simply because of the enormous disparity in budgets.

The broad rule of thumb for Irish editorial budgets is still £150 per page, which means that the entire editorial budget for an Irish magazine could easily be the equivalent of a single fashion shoot on a glossy British monthly.

Irish advertisers were reluctant to commit to Himself, with most adopting "a wait and see" approach which undermined the long-term stability of the title.

Mr Kelly's decision to pull the plug was sudden. Usually, advertising agencies would be aware of the imminent closure of any title, thanks to massive discounting on its final issues.

But Himself was still being offered at its rate card rate of £1,700 per page right up to its final December issue.

After Mr Cottam's departure in December, a new editor, Ms Emily Hourican, had been appointed and the next issue, is mostly complete. The magazine is currently featured in a Department of Environment television advertisement promoting recycling. In a deft piece of its own recycling, Image will be including a special men's supplement in its April issue, which will feature elements of the proposed February issue of Himself.