Death of magazines - Bye bye Blender

Another magazine shutters amid advertising recession

Tough times for print publications continue.

Alpha Media Group shuttered its entertainment magazine, Blender, on Thursday. It's one of the many magazines that have folded this year amidst the advertising recession.

Others include Conde Nast's Domino, which was four years old, and Country Home from Meredith. This follows a number of magazines that closed down last year, such as Conde Nast's House & Garden, Cottage Living, Ziff Davis' PC Magazine, Oprah's O at Home, and Hearst's CosmoGirl.

Alpha Media's decision to end publication was part of a broader restructuring, which includes the integration of the editorial staffs of both Maxim magazine and Maxim online, and some executive changes. 

The April issue will be its last. About 30 staff positions will be eliminated. 

From Ad Age:

Alpha tried to build Blender's circulation, pushing its paid-circulation guarantee to 1 million from 800,000 at purchase. But copies distributed to public places such as waiting rooms grew the fastest, from 13,000 copies in the second half of 2007 to 100,000 a year later, according to company reports with the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Paid subscriptions fell 8% to 768,000, while newsstand sales declined 18% to 44,233.

Ad pages at Blender also plunged 31% last year and another 57% from January through April, according to the Publishers Information Bureau and Media Industry Newsletter. Monthlies as a whole, by comparison, sank 12% last year and another 22% through April. Ad pages at Maxim fell 11% in 2008 and 37% from January through April.