Bauer Media yesterday announced that its Planet Rock magazine will close, while talks are ongoing about a sale of Q magazine, reports CompleteMusicUpdate.com.

The media company confirmed last month that it was reviewing the future of ten of the titles in its magazine portfolio. Of those ten, three will close, one will go digital only, one will merge with another title, while the other five are all subject to sale talks.

Making money from magazines has become increasingly challenging over the years of course, with print sales pretty much in decline across the board, and plenty of challenges on the online side where Google and Facebook are major competitors for advertising income. Meanwhile, to date, only really business titles and broadsheet newspapers have made any progress when it comes to online subscriptions.

The impact of COVID-19 on ad sales and the distribution of print titles through the high street has only increased all those challenges in recent months.

Of the two music magazines that were part of Bauer’s review, it’s the relatively young Planet Rock magazine that will go. It was launched in 2017 as a magazine spin-off of the Bauer-owned radio station of the same name.

Given Planet Rock magazine was newer and less well-known, when Bauer announced its magazine review last month much more attention in the music community was given to the future of Q, it being one of the UK’s classic music monthlies. In its statement yesterday Bauer said that it was now “in advanced stages” in talks to sell the title, allowing it to continue to publish under new ownership.

Read more at CompleteMusicUpdate.com.