Benjamin Down Three

Bonnier-owned Benjamin Media will no longer publish Cosmopolitan, Arena and FHM in Denmark. The reason is a sharp decline in advertising revenues as well as sales.

"This was an incredibly difficult decision to make, but in recent times, we have seen that our foreign license products failed to settle on the Danish market in the same way as our own magazines," says Benjamin CEO Jan Lehrmann. "We have been very pleased with the cooperation of both Bauer and Hearst, and our Danish editorial has done a fantastic job. But when the market is declining, it is always number two in each segment who suffers first, and it has unfortunately gone out of both FHM, Cosmopolitan and Arena, while our six other leading journals and have not been marked by economic recession in the same way."

Another reason for the decision is that international licensing agreements are very expensive, which doesn't make business sense in a small market like Danmark.

But the closure of the three journals shouldn't slow Benjamin Media.

"We already have many successes on the Web, both through our own magazine sites, and through cooperation with, for example, MSN," says Jan Lehrmann. And it is also on the Web that we have chosen to focus our energy in 2009. We produce content that is so good that we think we can make up for what we lose on the magazine front in other areas."

Facts: FHM and Arena are published under license from the English publisher Bauer Consumer Media. They have been published in Denmark since October 2003 and February 2006. Cosmopolitan is published under license from U.S. Hearst and has been published in Denmark since August 2006. Benjamin Media publishes Woman, Costume, M!, Bil Magasinet, Vmax and Bolig Magasinet in Denmark, as well as Woman, Costume and FHM in Norway.