Arena turns to Lord of the Rings to boost flagging sales

Claire Billings,, brandrepublic.com, Friday, 29 November 2002, 11:30am,

LONDON - Arena, Emap's upmarket men's magazine, is to publish three different covers for its January issue featuring 'Lord of the Rings' stars Sir Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood and Orlando Bloom.

The publisher is claiming the magazine's 'Lord of the Rings' interviews to be a world exclusive, with interviews and photoshoots featuring the three actors included in an 18-page section dedicated to the new movie, 'Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers'.

Arena editor-in-chief Anthony Noguera said: "Our three covers cover all Arena's bases -- we're giving the readers an established star in Elijah Wood, Britain's coolest new actor in Orlando Bloom and a genuine legend in Sir Ian McKellen."

The issue will also feature an Agent Provocateur set of strip poker playing cards, as part of an added drive to boost the title's circulation.

"The team at Arena are immensely proud of the January issue and are sure that it will fly off the newsstand," Noguera added.

Arena's circulation fell to 38,426 in the last set of ABCs for the January to June period, down 23% on the previous year. However, the title was then at the centre of an ABC scandal after it was found to have infringed ABC rules on bulk copies.

Its reissued ABC figure for the January to June period is 31,418, wiping almost 7,000 off its circulation.

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This article was first published on brandrepublic.com