Out ya go! Wal-Mart drops 1,000 titles from its newsstand inventory

Wal-Mart stores are having a huge purge of magazine titles. Long one of the biggest newsstand operators (generating more than 20 per cent of all retail magazine sales in the U.S.), the 4,000-strong string of stores is cutting 1,000 titles, according to a story in the New York Post by the usually reliable Keith Kelly.

Some of the titles (Child, Celebrity Living, Elle Girl, Teen People, Suede, Shop Etc., Weekend and FHM) are chopped from the inventory list because they are no longer being sold because they are no longer being published. But, as the story says, virtually no major publisher was spared as the chain uses its vaunted tracking system to decide who stays and who goes among titles that are going concerns.

One of the biggest corporate losers appears to be Meredith Publishing.

Its flagship Better Homes & Gardens is out, as is its sister service magazine Ladies Home Journal. Family Circle stays, however.

Fitness, which Meredith picked up from the defunct Gruner + Jahr, is out, though rivals Shape and Self are still in.

Time Inc.'s In Style will remain, though its spin-off title In Style Home is out. The main Sports Illustrated will remain on shelves, but Sports Illustrated for Kids is getting the heave-ho.

Hearst's Town & Country is out, as is Hachette's Home and Metropolitan Home.

Condé Nast lost space on Wal-Mart's racks for upscale parenting magazine Cookie, the urbane and sophisticated The New Yorker and the glitzy oversized W. Self magazine made the cut, but some slower-selling special interest spin-offs got the ax.

Several titles owned by Swedish publishing giant Bonnier, which less than a year ago paid $220 million for 16 Time Inc. titles, are being left behind. Among them: Parenting, Ski, Skiing, Yachting and Salt Water Sportsman.

Wal-Mart also tossed out some of longstanding titles, including foodie mag Saveur and Caribbean Travel & Life. And a number of business titles, including The Economist, BusinessWeek, Forbes and Fortune, are also getting the boot....

Even magazines that one might think fit with Wal- Mart's conservative and working- class image were left out in the cold. Among them: Boar Hunter Magazine, Spirituality & Health, Cabin Life and Log Home Living. Even the Saturday Evening Post is being spurned.