Specialist magazine publisher Nuance Multimedia goes into liquidation

Melbourne-based Nuance Multimedia has been put into liquidation, citing a tough advertising market and changes in reading habits as the main reasons for its demise.

The company publishes a handful of specialist titles, including the bi-monthly Australian Cyclist, the thrice-yearly lifestyle title House, an annual bulletin for the Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies and member magazines for the Institute of Public Accountants and the National Gallery of Victoria.

The company’s founder and CEO Jim Clarke, a former Fairfax executive and Walkley Award-winning journalist, made the difficult decision to wind up the business yesterday. Eight staff will lose their jobs.

Clarke told SmartCompany the operation couldn’t keep up with its costs, blaming changes in reader habits and the impact of the economic downturn on the advertising market.

The losses in retailing have been particularly savage.

“Retail is doing it very, very hard,” he said. “Doing it much more difficult than what most people, and certainly our government, think. There’s a lot of stress in the market.”

Clarke is working with the ADFAS, the Institute of Public Accountants and the National Gallery of Victoria to continue their member publications.

“I’m working with both of those organisations to facilitate a situation where there’s no interruption in supplying those magazines to their members,” he said.

Clarke says he tried to sell the cycling publication but wasn’t able to secure a buyer.

He will step away from the business once it has wound up, with no hope of resurrecting the company’s own titles.