Charles "Chas" McKeown, who will continue as publisher of E&P, hailed the sale and the speed and professionalism with which McIntosh and Nielsen completed the transaction. "Everyone knew what was at stake here," McKeown said. "Newspapers, which are transforming beyond the printed page to all forms of digital media, simply could not lose the one place where the industry could have a conversation with itself and exchange ideas and best practices for navigating the uncertain waters ahead, exemplified by our Interactive Media Conference which includes cable, TV, radio and other media."

Duncan McIntosh Co. Inc. is the publisher of several well-respected boating magazines and newspapers, including Boating World magazine; Sea Magazine, America's Western Boating Magazine; The Log Newspaper; and FishRap. The company also produces the Newport Boat Show in the spring and the Lido Yacht Expo in the fall. Both shows are held in California.

Mark Fitzgerald, a 26-year veteran, was named as E&P's new editor. He had most recently served as E&P's editor-at-large.

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RBI Closes Video Business Magazine
Video Business, a home entertain business trade publication, has ceased publication. The January 4 issue was the magazine's last. Video Business says its publisher Reed Business Information (RBI) is in the process of divesting itself of itself of most of its business-to-business publications in the U.S.

Marcy Magiera, editor-in-chief and associate publisher of Video Business, said, "I'm extremely proud of the role VB has played in the home entertainment industry, consistently breaking news, while providing important analysis and insight to our readers for almost three decades. Every staff member and regular contributor here is a first-class business journalist, and I will miss working with this smart, dedicated and caring group of people."

BtoBonline.com reports that Reed Business Information also ceased publishing two other titles, Manufacturing Business Technology and Industrial Distribution. You can read more on the magazine closures at Folio.

Posted on January 11, 2010
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Washington Times Cuts Sports Section
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Washington Times has cut its sports section and reduced its newsroom staff by 40%.

The newspaper will revamp to focus on politics, business and investigative reporting. The newspaper's Thursday edition announced the layoffs and said the last sports section would appear Friday. A new print edition will be launched Monday.

Among those let go was the newsroom leader, Managing Editor David Jones. The newspaper announced several management changes, though it's not clear who will oversee the newsroom operation. Christopher Dolan was appointed Wednesday as national politics editor and Brett Decker as editorial page editor.

The new cuts come in addition to job cuts in early December. The Washington Times sports section was printed for the last time on December 31st.

Posted on January 5, 2010
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Ashton Kutcher Relaunches Show on YouTube
The CW quickly canceled Ashton Kutcher's model drama, The Beautiful Life, after just two shows. Ashton Kutcher isn't letting that stop his show. He is turning to YouTube to relaunch the show. Reuters reports that Kutcher believes the show can "find its legs on the Web."

"What we feel like we're doing is creating, in some ways, an industry first," Kutcher told Reuters. "A show that couldn't find its legs on television, we believe can find its legs on the Web."

Using his own production company, Kutcher created "The Beautiful Life" as a show that looked at the underside of the modeling industry, including its cut-throat competition.

YouTube and Kutcher are banking on the TV-level quality to attract viewers in a crowded Web landscape that has plenty of expensively made reruns, but not a lot of high-end original content.

Several episodes that never aired on tv will be aired on YouTube. Ashton Kutcher is hoping he will be able to land sponsors that will allow new web-only episodes of The Beautiful Life to be produced. It is interesting gamble. Ashton Kutcher also a huge Twitter following to help him drive traffic to the shows on YouTube. The YouTube channel can be found here.

Posted on December 20, 2009
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Washington Blade Publisher Shuts Down
FishbowlDC reports that Window Media LLC, the nation's largest gay and lesbian newspaper publisher is closing down. Some of the newspapers they publish ininclude the Washington Blade, South Florida Blade & 411 Magazine, Genre Magazine and Southern Voice.

Politico is also confirming that the LGBT publisher is closing its doors. The closure announcement was also posted on the Washington Blade twitter account. The New York Times has also published a story about the publisher closing its doors.

Posted on November 16, 2009
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100 Jobs Cut at the Guardian
The Guardian reports that Guardian News and Media (GNM) are cutting 100 jobs at the Guardian. The Guardian's Thursday Technology print section will also be shuttered.

Staff in GNM commercial departments are due to be told about the impact of the latest cost cutting on their jobs by 9 December, while changes at editorial will take longer to complete because cuts are being managed through voluntary redundancies and redeployment. GNM publishes the Guardian, the Observer and the guardian.co.uk website network, which includes MediaGuardian.co.uk, and employs about 1,700 people.

GNM also revealed in the series of staff briefings today that the Guardian's Thursday Technology print section will cease publication at the end of the year.

Layoffs have been widespread and deep throughout the newspaper industry over the past several years. This year has been especially brutal thanks to a combination of internet competition and the recession.

Posted on November 12, 2009
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Hachette Filipacchi Media Closes Metropolitan Home and Pointclickhome.com
Hachette Filipacchi Media is shuttering Metropolitan Home magazine. Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. will focus on its other home decor title, Elle Decor, instead. Hachette Filipacchi Media is even closing its home portal Pointclickhome.com.

The WSJ says data from the Publishers Information Bureau indicates ad pages for Metropolitan Home fell 33% in the first nine months of 2009. The December issue of Metropolitan Home will be its very last.

Other home magazines including Conde Nast's Domino and O at Home have also been closed recently because of diminished advertising revenues in the recession.

Posted on November 10, 2009
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TopTenReviews Acquires Space.com, LiveScience.com and Newsarama.com
TopTenReviews has acquired the Consumer Media Division of Imaginova Inc., a privately held company based in New York City. Included in the acquisition are Space.com, LiveScience.com and Newsarama.com. TopTenReviews has established the TechMediaNetwork to incorporate these properties. Combined, 12.2 million people visit TechMediaNetwork sites each month.

"This acquisition expands TopTenReviews' coverage as a trusted technology adviser and strengthens the company as a source of technology news," said TopTenReviews founder and CEO Jerry Ropelato. "We see strong potential for growth in traffic and revenue as a result of the synergy between the sites."

PaidContent says TopTenReviews raised $6 million in 2008.

Posted on November 3, 2009
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Fortune Reduces Its Publishing Frequency
Fortune magazine is reducing the number of issues it publishes annually from 25 to 18. Reuters reports that the business magazine may also cut staff.

Fortune, like many other U.S. business magazines, has struggled in the advertising downturn.

Fortune will publish two issues some months and just one issue during other months, in the new publishing schedule is part of a remodeling that is expected to result in staff cuts and a sharper focus on the long stories that have been its trademark, the Journal said.

The New York Times reports that the cuts are part of a new round of layoffs from magazine publisher Time Inc.

The changes are part of another round of budget cuts at Time Inc., the nation's largest magazine publisher. Some layoffs were expected by year’s end, though the executive said the number had not yet been determined. The news was reported in Friday's Wall Street Journal.

Through September, ad pages across the magazine industry have fallen 27.3 percent this year, but business magazines fared much worse. Fortune, down 34.9 percent, was among the hardest hit, while its closest competitor, Forbes, was down 30.8 percent. Fortune’s paid circulation, just over 850,000 in the first half of this year, has changed little in the last decade.

The Wall Street Journal story about the changes at Fortune says big changes are planned for Fortune.com. The WSJ article says the magazine is even considering charging for features like the Fortune 500.

Posted on October 24, 2009
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Newsday Starts Charging $5 Weekly Fee
Newsday has announced that people who are not Optimum Online customers or Newsday customers will have to start paying a $5 weekly fee to access Newsday.com.

Those who are not customers of Optimum Online or the newspaper - both owned by Bethpage-based Cablevision Systems Corp. - will have to pay a $5 weekly fee. However, nonpaying customers will have access to some of newsday.com's information, including the home page, school closings, weather, obituaries, classified and entertainment listings. There also will be some limited access to Newsday stories.

Newsday described the move as one that would create a "pioneering Web model," combining the newspaper's newsgathering services with Cablevision's electronic distribution capabilities. About 75 percent of Long Island households are Newsday home delivery or Cablevision online customers or both, according to Newsday. Optimum Online customers total 2.5 million in the New York area, the paper said.

"We are excited about this model because in addition to a unique ability to immediately reach about 75 percent of Long Island households, we believe the hyper-local approach is right for Long Island," said Debby Krenek, Newsday managing editor and senior vice president/digital.

$5 a week is a lot to charge for online access. Even the Wall Street Journal doesn't charge that much for an annual online subscription. Dvorak says it amounts to $260 a year. Editor & Publisher says Newsday will "listen" to feedback and may tinker with what content is hidden behind the online newspaper's subsscription wall.

Posted on October 22, 2009
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New York Times Cutting 100 Newsroom Jobs
The New York Times Media Decoder blog is reporting that the Times is cutting 100 newsroom jobs, about 8% of the total newsroom jobs. The job cuts will happen by the end of the year, which is not far away.

The program mirrors one carried out in the spring of 2008, when the paper erased 100 positions in its newsroom, though other jobs were created, so the net reduction was smaller. That round of cuts included some layoffs of journalists — about 15 to 20, though The Times would not disclose the actual figure — which was the first time in memory that had happened.

The paper has made much deeper reductions in other, non-newsroom departments, where layoffs have occurred several times. But the advertising drop that has pummeled the industry has forced cuts in the news operation as well. The newsroom already has lowered its budgets for freelancers and trimmed other expenses, and employees took a 5 percent pay cut for most of this year.

Media Decoder says the Times is mailing buyout packages to the entire newsroom staff on Thursday and employees have 45 days to decide whether to apply for it. A lot of newspapers and magazines are struggling right now because of the recession and the switch to from print to online news. It reduced advertising dollars from the recession came at a terrible time for the newspaper industry.

Reuters has published a memo about the job cuts from New York Times Executive Editor Bill Kelle here.

Posted on October 19, 2009
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Get Married Magazine Debuts
Get Married Media has announced the launch of Get Married magazine, a new shopping and trend guide for brides. The wedding magazine includes editorial features on real brides, wedding professionals and experts, as well as an array of inspiring challenges, trend round-ups, product profiles, shopping guides and informative articles.

Get Married is giving the first issue of its magazine for free. Subsequent quarterly issues will be on newsstands beginning January 2010. Annual subscriptions (4 issues) are available at $14.96.

"Get Married magazine is as smart as it is fun, and the response has been tremendously positive from brides, advertisers and wedding professionals. By creating a user-friendly tool that offers choices and guidance on an array of the latest wedding products and trends, we make it easy for brides to simultaneously plan and shop," said Stacie Francombe, founder and president of Get Married Media. "Brides are smart, they are passionate, they like to discover, and they enjoy instant information, and Get Married magazine and getmarried.com afford them the luxury of immediate gratification - it's a girl’s dream."

Get Married magazine is closely integrated with the Get Married TV show and GetMarried.com website, which offers brides an interactive experience, including a newly-launched wedding shop that sells products as seen in the magazine, as well as a wedding blog, video segments from the show, articles, image galleries and tools.

Posted on October 14, 2009
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Conde Nast Closes Several Publications
The big news in the magazine industry this week was Conde Nast's decision to shutter several publications. The publications being closed include Gourmet, Cookie, Elegant Bride and Modern Bride. 180 people at Conde Nast will lose jobs as a result of the titles closing.

The L.A. Times describes a sudden switch at glossy magazines form generous expense accounts to cutbacks and firings.

Generous expense accounts were de rigueur at glossy fashion and lifestyle magazines. Some top editors and publishers enjoyed clothing allowances and mortgage assistance. Even lowly assistants flitted about in chauffeur-driven town cars.

But that culture has been turned on its head as the magazine business reels from the battered economy, the drop in advertising revenue and restraints on expenses.

Conde Nast's unexpected closure Monday of venerable Gourmet and three other magazines underscored the swift and brutal fall of what had been one of the city's most elite and free-spending industries.

There have been reports that consulting firm McKinsey & Co. put Conde Nast publications through a brutal review. Even with the cuts and closed publications, Conde Nast may still have job cuts and other cost cutting in its future. Slate compares Conde Nast to General Motors. The Guardian says Conde Nast is slated to lose $1 billion in revenue this year. A publisher can't endure that kind of advertising setback without drastic cuts.

Meanwhile, Conde Nast is launching a dating site targeted at fashionistas. This does not seem like the type of project that will boost the company's revenues by much.

Posted on October 11, 2009
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