After 32 years, BRW goes out of print; For much of its 32-year history, BRW had the highest per capita circulation in the world for a business magazine

Leo D’Angelo Fisher Columnist

After 32 years, BRW goes out of print

Published 25 November 2013 00:29, Updated 25 November 2013 11:46

For much of its 32-year history, BRW had the highest per capita circulation in the world for a business magazine. At its peak it boasted a circulation of 80,200. But a flat and rapidly fragmenting advertising market, consumer preference for digital platforms and a sluggish economy have finally caught up with one of Australia’s most respected media brands.On November 28, the last print edition of the weekly magazine, published by Fairfax Media, owner of The Australian Financial Review, will hit the stands.BRW will continue as a free online publication. The Rich 200 list will also continue as part of the Financial Review.

Fairfax’s director of business media, Sean Aylmer, a former editor-in-chief ofBRW, said the print edition had been ­discontinued because “it isn’t delivering the financial returns that we needed to continue BRW as a print product”.

“The reality is that increasingly people will be looking to digital; it’s just the way the world is moving,” he said.

“Nobody wants to close a magazine, and especially a magazine like BRW that has made such a difference.”

The founding editor, Robert ­Gottliebsen, attributes the success of the magazine to its “how-to element” and its original slogan, “news you can use”.

“Our reason for being was to serve our readers and help them make the right decisions in business, investment, their professions and other activities,” he said. “In those days nobody else was doing this. We’d explain what this [information] meant to you and how you could use it.” BRW had a modest start on April 4, 1981, as an insert in the now defunct National Timesnewspaper. Mr ­Gottliebsen, the Financial Review’s first Chanticleer columnist, was charged by Fairfax to launch a rival to the Packer family’sAustralian Business magazine.

‘A fight to the death’

Characterised by Mr Gottliebsen as a “fight to the death”, it was a war thatBRW won. By the end of the decade, Kerry Packer admitted defeat and closedAustralian Business. Mr Gottliebsen recalled the victory with relish.

“We beat Packer,” he said. “Nobody else had ever beaten Packer in the magazine business. We did and it felt great.”

The election of Bob Hawke’s Labor government in 1983 proved a boon for the magazine. Treasurer Paul Keating was determined to make Australia a globally competitive economy and ushered in a series of landmark economic reforms: the float of the Australian dollar; financial deregulation; dismantling the tariff ­system; and reform of the tax system. BRW not only unlocked the secrets of ­success, it celebrated success.

“The thing I will always remember at BRW more than anything else is the first Rich List. It was a moment in time,” Mr Gottliebsen said. BRW published its first Rich List in 1983. It was topped by Rupert Murdoch with a fortune of $250 million, just a touch more than this year’s entry point of $235 million.

The following year the first annual Rich 200 appeared, instantly driving stand sales and new ­subscriptions.

As the 1980s progressed, Mr ­Gottliebsen and lieutenants such as ­Stuart Simson, David Koch and Ross Greenwood became the driving force behind the BRW Group of magazines which included Personal Investor, Triple A,Shares, Today’s Computers, Rydges and Time Australia.

Mr Gottliebsen left BRW in 2000, later co-founding the Business Spectatorwebsite with Alan Kohler and Stephen Bartholomeusz, which they sold in 2012 to News Ltd. Mr Gottliebsen remains an associate editor of Business Spectator.

But the impact of the ­internet and falling advertising revenues have left their mark. In October 2012, ­Fairfax appointed former BRW senior writer Amanda Gome as publisher to develop a digital strategy for BRW.

In 2013 former BRW Rich 200 editor James Thomson returned and launched a new BRW website.

Mr Thomson believes the success of brw.com.au has saved the title. “We’ve had fantastic online traffic growth and that’s helped establish BRW as a daily habit for readers. That will serve us well as we make this transition.”