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

Saturday, 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.

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

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

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