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TV Soap magazine ends after 36 years

"The difficult decision has been made to cease publishing," says long-running soap mag.

TV Soap has this week published its last ever issue, bringing to an end a 36 year publishing history.

Publishers nextmedia said in a statement, “After what has been an amazing journey, the difficult decision has been made to cease publishing TV Soap in December 2020.

“The team would like to thank its loyal fans and readers who have made producing this magazine a reality over the last 30 years.”

TV Soap, which describes itself as “Australia’s number 1 magazine for lovers of TV Drama, gossip and glamour” heavily favours The Bold & the Beautiful (every cover) but also features Home & Away, Neighbours, Wentworth, Days of Our Lives, The Young & the Restless, Halifax: Retribution, Mrs. America, My Life is Murder, The Heights, Billions, The Bachelor and Real Housewives.

James Manning, Editor of Mediaweek tells TV Tonight, “TV Soap first appeared in 1984 edited by entertainment reporter Ben Mitchell and was published by then-Fairfax magazine division Magazine Promotions. The title survived several stops and starts across the years and found a home with a number of publishers before ending up most recently with German-owned nextmedia.

“The magazine’s final editor Vesna Petropoulos had been in charge for a long time and managed to find a way to keep an audience engaged with limited resources as many other magazines went by the wayside. Although the magazine covered the Australian, US and UK soaps, it did its best work covering US TV giants The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of Our Lives and The Young and the Restless.

TV Soap also outlasted TV Hits which ceased publishing in 2010 after 22 years.

Iconic TV Week, which recently appointed Amber Giles as Editor, remains the pioneer and best-seller in its genre, reaching 63 years next week.

A Collectors Edition final copy is dated as 7th December 2020.

5 Responses

  1. I remember seeing it at the supermarket checkout in the early 1980s and thinking “That won’t last”. I never thought it would still be publishing 20 years into the 21st century.

  2. I used to get this magazine as a young man in the 80s, t had more variety back then, with night times soaps as well as daytime soaps a focus. (Sons and Daughters, A Country Practice, Dallas, Dynasty, Prisoner). It still seemed a popular sneak read by supermarket shoppers. I don’t doubt that the fact that The Bold and the Beautiful is now shown pretty much up to date with the US, has a lot to do with its ending. As that means they can no longer do front page spoilers of what’s to come.

  3. TV Soap was a great read. 😭 My Nana got me into the magazine. There used to be a regular section called Talent Poll. I wish everyone behind it all the best.

  4. Must say l feel it lasted alot longer than l thought. Print material these days are dinasours sadly. I had fugured when eprogram guides began a norm the need for a TV week mag/s were a thing of the past. Sadly ww live in a digital era now. RIP.

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