Rebranding fails to save women's mag

She magazine hits the shelves this week for the last time alongside the more trendy titles it inspired.

The ACP Media publication was one of the few New Zealand women's magazines targeting its demographic when it launched as More in 1986.

This week - two name changes and several rebrands later - the magazine shut.

ACP Media's chief executive officer Heith Mackay-Cruise cited lack of "stickiness" with readers as a key reason, saying the title was not commercially viable.

He said despite rebranding two years ago with a better paper stock, new format and sponsorship of the nationwide SHE TriWoman Series, the magazine's circulation had dropped.

SHE's circulation fell 16.7 per cent last year to just over 16,000. Readership was around 100,000.

Mediacom strategist Michael Carney said SHE had fallen into the "wallpaper" category. New titles in the crowded women's magazine market were more cutting-edge, trendy and better targeted at readers.

"It's a generalist magazine but not a gossip magazine, so I suspect that in trying to be all things to all women of a certain age, it kind of failed to fire in the right direction," said Carney.

"When More came out, it was the first New Zealand monthly women's title aimed at that particular niche, so it did occupy a chunk of the market at the time."

Starcom general manager Alistair Jamison said the magazine struggled for good editorial content and its advertising space was too expensive.

"From an advertising support point of view, they probably never really priced it in a way that it gets on a lot of schedules."