Last week the magazine industry suffered from more cutbacks.
Thursday, the Reader's Digest Association said it will lay off about 300 people, some eight percent of its employees, it'll put employees on unpaid furloughs and suspend contributions to workers' 401(k)s. The Company publishes its eponymous Readers' Digest, Every Day with Rachael Ray, many magazines overseas, websites including Allrecipes.com, and a new magazine and organization, Purpose Driven Connection, built around Rick Warren. The company isn't shuttering any of its U.S. magazines or websites, but it is cutting back at its operations around the world.
Other magazines aren't so lucky—last week Conde Nast decided to shut down its Domino home magazine and website. The magazine's ad pages dropped just 4.5% in 2008, compared to the 9.4% drop in ad revenues of magazines as a whole. The housing crisis having its impact—Domino is the latest of a half-dozen home magazines across the publishing companies to shutter in the past twelve months. Country Home from Meredith Corp. (MDP) is publishing its last issue in March. Time Inc. (TWX) pulled the plug on Cottage Living, which printed its last issue in December 2008. Hearst Magazine (HTV) was forced to close O at Home, despite the fact that the quarterly magazine had 700,000 paying subscribers when it shut down in the fall.
Green-themed magazines are also going extinct. National Geographic ended its Green Guide magazine in December, just nine months after introducing it. Just this month a green living magazine called Plenty shut down. Stocked in newsstands and Whole Foods (WFMI), it promised advertisers a paid circulation of 200,000 six times a year. Still, the magazine couldn't raise enough financing to continue.
But magazine's challenges aren't genre-specific. Hearst's Teen Magazine is no longer, Walt Disney's (DIS) ending its Wondertime parenting magazine. Ziff Davis Media is closing down Electronic Gaming Monthly and PC Magazine. Time Inc is ending Sports Illustrated Latino.
The list goes on and on.
If you're looking to really wallow in how bad the magazine industry is these days, check out this blog, magazinedeathpool.com, which chronicles the latest closings.
