News Magazines backs out on Project Dannii

by Mark Banham and Daniel Farey-Jones, Brand Republic 18-Jan-07, 16:30

LONDON - News Magazines, the magazine publishing arm of News International, is understood to have pulled the plug on its proposed women's weekly Project Dannii.

The unnamed title was due to launch last September, but a series of delays have meant the date has moved back several times.

Karl Marsden, News Magazine's commercial director, had been quoted as saying that the magazine was ready to launch, but that the publisher had suspended the project.

It is not known yet what will happen to the staff involved in the launch of the title, which was due to be edited by former Hello! editor Maria Trkulja, who left the company in October last year.

The magazine was expected to launch into a market that many commentators said was already overcrowded.

Project Danni was due to join Love It! and home interest monthly The Sunday Times Inside Out in the publisher's portfolio. Love It! recorded an initail ABC of 405,441 exceeding its 400,000 sales target.

Rival Emap launched First into the weekly market in August last year. It failed to meet its launch sales targets. The title sold 110,000 copies, down on the 150,000-200,000 Emap was hoping for.

IPC Media and Groupe Marie Claire are set to launch weekly Look into the market on February 6, and will be sampled the week before.

Backed by an £18m investment over two years, Look will deliver high-street fashion and shopping advice, celebrity style and gossip.

A spokesman for News Magazines said that the publisher had recently changed its priorities for launch titles: "News Magazines is currently working on a number of launch projects and development opportunities for the business across a range of sectors. For any magazine company, it is inevitable that the order of development priorities will change from time to time.

"We have a very talented team working on a number of projects including the development of the 7m circulation Sky magazine, recently won by News Magazines Ltd in a competitive pitch.

"News Magazines is also actively recruiting a significant number of roles across a range of disciplines to meet the requirements of its many projects."

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