People and Picture magazines to close at the end of the year

The publisher of Picture and People magazines will close them after a campaign demanding service station giants stop selling the titles.

Two racy magazines will be axed after a social media campaign forced service stations to remove them from shelves.

Bauer Media has announced it will shutter Picture and People at the end of the year, following a decision yesterday by companies BP and 7-Eleven to no longer allow them on shelves.

Those decisions came after complaints that the titles sexualised young girls and promoted harassment.

BP Australia agreed to pull the mags from 350 petrol outlets around the country, after activist group Collective Shout alerted the company to recent objectionable covers.

Both frequently published pictures of glamour models as well as stories with a sexual element.

Headlines on the covers included “Better Than Viagra” and featured a photograph of a young woman in pigtails with the caption “I have no gag reflex”, Collective Shout said.

People magazine has been going for 69 years. Its readership has fallen to 0.01 per cent of the population over 14, while People’s has dropped to 0.02 per cent.

A Bauer Media spokeswoman told Guardian Australia discussions to close the magazines had been taking place “as the magazines have lost ranging (visibility), which has affected their commercial viability”.

“As closures impact a number of people, including some staff and suppliers, they need to be well considered and timed appropriately,” the spokeswoman said.

“The magazines will be closing at the end of the year and we’re working closely with staff to find suitable redeployment.”

7-Eleven and BP have pulled porn magazines from their shelves.

The Twitter accounts for the two magazines were shut down on Tuesday after Guardian Australia approached Bauer for comment.

The magazines are still being sold at other convenience stores, as well as Coles and newsagencies.

But Collective Shout has set its sights on the supermarket giant next.

“The display and sale of pornographic magazines in the public space creates a hostile environment for women and girls,” campaigns manager Melinda Liszewski said in a statement.

“Sexual objectification and sexism creates a culture of violence against women.

“We urge other retailers selling these magazines — such as Coles Express — to follow the example set by 7-Eleven and BP and cease the sale of ‘unrestricted’ pornographic magazines immediately.”

7-Eleven recently stopped selling the magazines in its 700 convenience stores.

Collective Shout campaigns against the objectification of women and the sexualisation of girls and has been campaigning against the magazines and other titles for a decade.

It said it ran a successful campaign against ‘lads mag’ Zoo — another Bauer title — four years ago.

“Bauer has recognised that society has moved on,” Melinda Tankard Reist said, also of Collective Shout. 

“These sexist titles cannot coexist in a society that claims to care about sexual harassment and other forms of mistreatment of women.

“The sexist behaviour of the St Kevin’s students just this week is a reflection of boys’ conditioning by a pornified culture. They learn early that women exist for their gratification. We can’t change behaviour without addressing the cultural normalising of it. A sexist culture grooms sexist boys.

“All the women and girls we represent thank Bauer Media for demonstrating corporate social responsibility. May other companies follow their lead.”

Originally published as People and Picture magazines to close at the end of the year