Out of the Magazine Business

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (New Albany, Ohio) has decided to retire the A&F Quarterly magazine that has caused so much controversy and will cease publication with the Christmas issue.

After repeated protests from socially conservative groups and feminist groups, the company announced this month that it was withdrawing the issue. At the time, the company said the magazine was being taken off the shelves to make room for a new Abercrombie & Fitch fragrance.

A number of groups, including the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families, the American Decency Association and the Focus on the Family organization have protested the content of the magazine over the last several years, suggesting that the sexual images and content were a prurient and cynical way of marketing to young people.

“While it has enjoyed success with the quarterly over the years, the company believes it is time for new thinking and looks forward to unveiling an innovative and exciting campaign in the spring,” read a statement from Abercrombie & Fitch.

Abercrombie & Fitch operates nearly 700 clothing stores, including the offshoot Hollister stores, that have an emphasis on teenage and young adult fashions. The debate over the quarterly heated up recently after the publication of its 280-page Christmas Field Guide, with “Group Sex” on its cover.

The magazine was published four times a year, with a distribution of about 200,000 copies through sales at stores (at $6 a copy) and subscriptions ($12 a year). After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the company decided to withdraw its holiday magazine, saying that the tone of the publication was not well-suited to the somber mood of the time.

The magazine, which was produced in part by the fashion photographer Bruce Weber and the fashion advertising executive Sam Shahid, generally used little in the way of clothing to pitch the apparel line. Rather, it depended on images of languid, barely clothed young models to portray the retailer as cutting edge and countercultural.

The provocative publication was something of a marketing innovation, in part because it sold advertising to other companies, including SoBe beverages and Sony, who were interested in reaching consumers age 18 to 24. Since the distribution of the Christmas issue was halted this month, copies of it have become highly sought after. Yesterday evening on eBay, a copy had received a bid of $122.50.