What was once a classic and standard magazine subscription for many families is now coming to an end. Family Circle, a magazine that has been around since 1932, will circulate its last issue on December of 2019.
Meredith Corporation, the parent company of Family Circle, made the announcement in a press release, which also announced a slew of restructuring within the company.
"When we acquired the Time Inc. portfolio of media brands in January 2018, we doubled our presence in the women's lifestyle category," said Doug Olson, President of Meredith Magazines, in a statement. "Our portfolio philosophy continues to emphasize investing in brands that are market leaders and/or possess the highest growth potential. Sometimes, that means making hard decisions. Fortunately, we have been able to find new roles for some of the Family Circle team, and I would like to thank the entire group for its hard work and wish those employees affected the best in future endeavors."
Since 1932, Family Circle has provided recipes, advice, and lifestyle tips to women across the country. However, as the switch to digital has started to increase, the magazine has seen a drop in subscriptions. While there are 13 million readers of the magazine, only 4 million of those are actually in print. Because of the low physical readership, 25 staffers from Family Circle were let go. As Olson noted, some of the other staffers from the magazine were re-assigned to different teams.
Meredith isn't giving up on the entire print genre, however. They announced last week that they're releasing a new magazine with Drew and Jonathan Scott from the Property Brothers.
"Drew and Jonathan have a unique connection with consumers that will translate well into print," said Olson. "We're extremely excited about taking the chemistry they share with their millions of viewers onscreen to new and existing audiences in the print medium."
"We love print and have always wanted to extend our message of living life to the fullest through this medium," said Jonathan.
Added Drew: "For us, it's always been about taking the small, simple steps that earn big results at home, work, rest and play. With a platform like this, we get to develop a consistent and thoughtful way of sharing great ideas and actionable insights with our audiences."
I remember my mom getting Family Circle magazines every month when I was a kid, and I still use a lot of the recipes from in there today. It's sad to see such an institution go.