Controversial lads magazine Zoo Weekly will print its last issue on October 12 amid collapsing sales and near-constant criticism of its racy content.

Publisher Bauer Media blames ‘tough retail conditions in the men’s market’ for the PMP-printed magazine’s demise, just a month after Coles pulled it from shelves.

Circulation was falling so badly it was removed from Australian Bureau of Circulation auditing after falling 36 per cent in 2014 to 24,112 copies a week with further falls following.

Though Zoo has fared particularly badly, its fortunes reflect crashing sales of gossip-driven magazines with vast and varied content of its type available online.

This trend was highlighted by PMP chief executive Peter George while commenting on the printer’s annual report last month.

“A lot of commercial print is in an irreversible decline, particularly with magazines which are gossip driven and you can easily get gossip on the internet now,” he said.

It is the third notable magazine job PMP has lost this year after the Qantas and Foxtel titles went to IPMG when a rival publisher poached them from Bauer.

Zoo has been a lightning rod for controversy since almost the first day of its nine-year run, with frequent rows over its salacious tabloid headlines and scantily clad models that adorn every cover.

In 2012 it photoshopped Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young onto a lingerie model to promote its ‘Australia’s Hottest Asylum Seeker’ competition. Hanson-Young successfully sued over her unflattering portrayal.

Earlier this year it sparked outrage with a 10-page Anzac Day special, and was the subject of a 40,000-signature petition asking Coles and Woolworths to stop selling it because it promoted sexism.

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