Magazine closures, cuts, for January 5-9, 2009

January 10, 2009

Amid economic turmoil, rising costs, and the growing popularity of the internet, many magazines are closing or cutting staff, worldwide. The following is a sample of the news.

American magazine publisher Meredith cuts 250 jobs
The marketer, television broadcaster, and magazine publisher Meredith Corporation is cutting 7% of its workforce. This announcement comes as ad revenue slides in print and on TV; about 60% of revenues at the company are from ads. Around 100 of the jobs slashed are in the company's Des Moines, Iowa home office, while another 150 are spread across the country.

Affected in the cut is Country Home magazine, which will cease publication, and ReadyMade, which will relocate staff from Berkley, California to Des Moines.

The publisher of 13 magazines and 200 special interest publications, Meredith's holdings include Better Homes and Gardens, Parents, and the Ladies' Home Journal.

Sources

Reader-generated mag may not cease, after all
After announcing JPG magazine would cease publication just days ago, the future of 8020 Publishing is looking brighter. The internet-based announcement has generated enough chatter around the web to attract investors. Among those said to be expressing interest are online photo-hosting communities Flickr, owned by Yahoo, and Smugmug.

Published six-times annually, the magazine features user-created, user-submitted photography, uploaded to its website. While it started as a print-on-demand publication in 2005, it became a full-fledged newsstand publication the next year.

The company had cut its user-generated Everywhere travel magazine last year, but hoped to relaunch it in the first quarter of 2009, along with starting two other magazines, of which details hadn't been decided.

Sources

Plenty magazine's future looks unplentyful
Launched in 2005, the bi-monthly Plenty magazine is feeling a "money crunch". In recent months, the publication looked to Kevin Wall, the new media entrepreneur behind Live Earth linked to Al Gore, who was said to be interested in purchasing it.

On Monday, Gawker.com reported a tip that a funding round fell through as advertising cooled, leading to a layoff of "almost the entire staff". Only a crew of four or five personnel remain, to keep the publication's website going.

Sources

Other closures

 * Hachette Filipacchi Médias, the world's largest magazine publisher, has sold the magazine Physicologies to Prisma Publicaciones. All 12 writers at the publication were fired.
 * Water and Longboard magazines both ceased publication with their December 2008 issues.
 * Late last year, Davie Graham, the founding publisher of the National Rugby Post, donated his publications to the Edmonton-based Rugby Canada. Recently, the sports body announced it would close the magazine. The Rugby Post had published since 1985. An Ontario publication, Scrum Magazine, was launched last November, before there was a void to fill.
 * The English edition of Ricardo magazine, based on a Quebec celebrity chef, has been "suspended for an undetermined period." An insufficient level of paid subscriptions lead to Les Éditions Gesca's decision to shutter the magazine, started in 2006. A French-language edition, launched in 2003, continues.
 * Apotex Inc.'s quarterly Newpharmacist/Pharmacien Le Jour, published for pharmacists, will stop with the January 2009 issue.

Sources