IPC says it took the decision so it could concentrate its resources on its profitable woman's glossy Marie Claire. However, staff at IPC suggest that the closure is part of an attempt to close loss-making magazines ahead of a stock market flotation next year.
Last month, the group folded monthly Woman's Realm -- the title set up to cater for the post-war woman -- into Woman's Weekly to make way for the launch of Your Life, a new monthly aimed at a slightly younger, more upmarket readership.
Nova was originally launched in 1965 by the then Mirror Group. Its controversial style of journalism -- which tackled contentious issues such as homosexual law and racism -- coupled with groundbreaking fashion coverage earned it iconic status for a decade until its demise, through falling sales, in 1975.
It was revived in May 2000 by IPC, under the editorship of Deborah Bee, and was positioned as an offbeat fashion-based lifestyle magazine. However, when it failed to meet sales targets it was relaunched with a new team under the leadership of Jeremy Langmead, the former editor of the Sunday Times Style magazine.
The latest ABC figures placed Nova's circulation at 75,142 lagging a long way behind rivals Elle's sales of 224,355, Vogue's 202,694 and Marie Claire's circulation of 400,543 for the period July to December 2000.