Granada eyes pair of soap mag spin-offs

Granada Television is planning standalone spin-off magazines of its two major soaps, Emmerdale and Coronation Street.

The company has appointed Scorpio Multimedia to publish a one-off magazine for Emmerdale, which will go on the shelves on October 7. Emmerdale Stars will be priced at £2.60 and have an initial print run of 100,000 copies.

It is understood that the contract publisher is in talks with Granada to produce a magazine for Coronation Street as well, but no firm plans have been made for the launch of the soap’s first spin-off magazine.

The roll-out of Emmerdale Stars will coincide with the soap’s 30th anniversary.

Scorpio Multimedia also produces the Cable Guide and NTL:guide TV listings magazines. Both titles have been hit by plummeting circulation figures. The Audit Bureau of Circulations data for January to June 2002 shows Cable Guide fell 50.9 per cent year-on-year to a circulation of 512,612. NTL:guide slumped 87.5 per cent year-on-year to 229,757.