[BREAKING NEWS] Associated Media Publishing will not be renewing its licence to publish Marie Claire in South Africa. The last issue will be published in December 2018.
“Yes, it is [big news in the magazine world] and sad as we love the brand and are very proud of what we have achieved,” CEO Julia Raphaely told The Media Online. “We want to really focus on driving our innovation adoption quite hard now and need to optimise our resources for a new type of publishing model. We will obviously try our best to accommodate MC staff wherever possible,” she said.
Raphaely earlier said in a statement that the AMP business had become South Africa’s “most digitally- and event-led multi-media company in the lifestyle space and as the licence of the Marie Claire brand came up for renewal, we felt it was the right time for us to concentrate our efforts on our digital and creative offering”.
Associated Media Publishing published the magazine in partnership with Groupe Marie Claire.
She said AMP had enjoyed a “long and trusted relationship with the brand and our partners in France for 15 years; the magazine has been providing readers with incredible reportage, investigative features and inspiration, and we thank them for their support, engagement and loyalty,” she said.
Associated Media Publishing has in place a strategic imperative to “significantly transform its existing publishing model and expand its business offering with the recent launch of ampDIGITAL – its joint venture with Thumbtribe – the company has decided not to renew its licence of the Marie Claire brand”, it said in the statement.
The company hoped to redeploy Marie Claire staff to other parts of the company as it continued to build its business. Raphaely said existing subscribers would have the opportunity to receive any of the company’s other women’s titles for the duration of their subscriptions.
