Asos built Britain's most-read fashion mag by giving it away — then shut it

The online fashion retailer Asos launched its quarterly magazine in April 2009 and mostly gave it away to customers — free to UK subscribers of Asos Premier, later sold for £1 as well. The covers got bigger than the giveaway suggested: Taylor Swift, Jennifer Lawrence, Lena Dunham, Solange Knowles, Daisy Ridley. By the second half of 2017 its distribution was 453,287 per issue according to ABC — the most-read fashion title in UK print, above Stylist and British Vogue — and Asos claimed more than 700,000 readers once France, Germany and the US were included. Issue 100 arrived in 2018.

Then the retailer's own numbers turned. In the twelve months to August 2019, Asos profits fell 68 per cent to £33.1m amid warehouse delivery problems and profit warnings; chief executive Nick Beighton called the consumer environment 'unsettled', with sustainability worries and Brexit pressing on twenty-something spending. On October 23, 2019, the company confirmed the autumn issue — on covers featuring Madison Beer and Swae Lee — was the last, as it refocused on 'the channels and media that are most meaningful to our 20-something customers'.

What got cut was not a failing magazine but a marketing line item. The company declined to say whether editorial staff lost their jobs; culture editor Sam Higgins went freelance and wrote that he was 'gutted for the magazine — it's one that has continuously championed diverse talent and told important stories on mental health'. The title died at the peak of its readership, because the P&L around it had stopped growing.