Arena Singapore taken off life support

• MediaCorp abandons plans to keep Arena Singapore alive
• MediaCorp unveils plans to launch supplement Style: Men as a monthly
• Style: Men magazine to be published in the last quarter of the year

Singapore - MediaCorp has backtracked on its decision to keep the local edition of international men's title Arena alive, and has shut the publication two months after the closure of the Arena UK mothership.

"MediaCorp was ready to continue publishing Arena Singapore despite Bauer's [Bauer Media] news two months ago but with further evaluation, it has become evident that without the content resource of the international editions, maintaining a local one has its limitations," Zita Ong, managing director of MediaCorp's publishing division, said in a statement.

In March, Ong was confident the local edition could survive without the support of the UK title saying that 80% of the content in Arena Singapore was locally produced.

MediaCorp Publishing will now focus its attention to another men's title as it announced it was turning Style: Men which is a supplement on women's title Style: into a magazine on its own right.

Style: Men is expected to launch as a monthly title in the last quarter of the year.

"Style: Men is one of our most successful brand extensions and I believe it will now be even more successful as a standalone magazine. It fits perfectly into our lifestyle publishing arm which already includes two of Singapore's top fashion magazines for women, Style: and ELLE," Ong said.

According to MediaCorp its contract publishing division has experienced double-digit growth year on year.