The UK’S oldest gardening magazine, Amateur Gardening, closed in October after 139 years of publication.
Founded in London in 1884, the weekly magazine had a circulation of 300,000 in its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s but this had fallen lately to 28,000.
The publishers cited cost increases over the past 18 months as the main reason for the closure. These costs included a 25 per cent rise in printing costs and a 20 per cent increase in the cost of the popular seed packets circulated free with the magazine each i sue. Advertising revenue had also been falling. Several of the UK’s gardening personalities have been associated with the magazine, including Alan Titchmarsh whose first job in journalism was as its deputy editor in 1976.
Gardeners’ World hosts Monty Don, Toby Buckland and the late Percy Thrower were also contributors along with Ground Force presenter Charlie Dimmock.
The final issue went on sale on October 10. In a final message to readers, the AG team posted the following on Facebook:
“Dear Amateur Gardening readers, thank you from all of us on the AG team, for your steadfast devotion, wonderful letters and emails, touching tributes and heartfelt messages of support. It’s very hard to put into words exactly how much this incredible magazine has meant to every one of us – but your support has been appreciated beyond measure by all who worked on this mag.”
