Study: 525 magazines shut down in 2008
It seemed like magazines closed at an ever-quickening pace last year as the economy collapsed, and indeed 525 folded, or an average of more than one per day. But that was actually fewer shutterings than in 2007, according to a new report released by U.S. and Canadian magazine database MediaFinder.com. As a category, regional magazines saw the biggest losses, with 33 closing, followed by travel, with 18 going under. Home and automotive both lost 17 titles. One year earlier, 591 magazines closed, with 37 regional titles folding. MediaFinder reports that 13 publications did move to online-only publication last year, including PC Mag, Playgirl and Information Security. This year is looking bleak as well. Through the first month of 2009, 40 publications had gone under, including Wondertime, Country Home and Domino.

Amazon’s Kindle 2, a smaller, talkier device
Amazon.com’s Kindle 2 had an unveiling fit for a King, guest hawker Stephen King. The online retailer yesterday rolled out its second-generation digital reader that costs a substantial, in this economy, $359. King agreed to publish a Kindle 2 exclusive and yesterday read portions of the new work for those assembled at the debut. The device will be available to online shoppers Feb. 24, and it has a few new features that the first model did not, including the ability to read aloud. The first Kindle debuted in November 2007, allowing buyers to read books, magazines, blogs and more portably. The new version is smaller than the original, at 10 ounces and a third of an inch thick.

Skimpier swimsuit: SI ad pages fall by a third
It’s hard to say who’s getting skinnier, the models in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue or the magazine itself. Early estimates are that ad pages in the annual edition are off 33 percent from last year, from 104.3 pages to 70, according to min. That’s the fewest ad pages since 1984 and the first time since 2001 that the issue failed to generate at least 100. Though the magazine industry has seen substantial ad page declines this year, a third is a lot of pages to drop. During 2008, Sports Illustrated was off 10.1 percent from the previous year, somewhat higher than the industrywide average of 11.7 percent, according to the Publishers Information Bureau. The swimsuit issue was unveiled on “Late Show with David Letterman” last night on CBS.

Programming notes: Cartoon orders more ‘Clone’
The clone wars referenced in the “Star Wars” movies will last for at least another year. Cartoon Network has ordered a second season of the animated “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” for next fall, after this season’s finale slated for March 20. The Friday 9 p.m. series averaged 792,000 boys 6-11 on Jan. 30, making it the most-watched program of the day on all of TV in the demo. Meanwhile, in other programming, ABC Family has picked up a 24-episode second season of “The Secret Life of the American Teenager,” likely to begin next summer. The season one finale airs on March 23. DIY Network on March 4 will launch “Kitchen Impossible,” in which Marc Bartolomeo will show viewers how to spruce up their kitchens. In syndication, Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution has cleared the court show “Judge Jeanine Pirro” in 75 percent of the country for the second season, which kicks off in the fall. And NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution has renewed “The Steve Wilkos Show” for a third season, clearing it in 70 percent of the country.

WSJ.com expands European and Asian sites
Most newspapers are cutting back right now, but The Wall Street Journal is expanding, at least internationally. Yesterday the News Corp.-owned paper expanded its Asian and European web sites while launching a new Indian home page. The expansion includes several new jobs based in Hong Kong, London and New Delhi and comes just days after the Journal confirmed that it will be laying off roughly 25 newsroom employees following a rough fourth quarter for News Corp. Neil McIntosh will oversee the European edition, with Elana Beiser the Hong Kong editor and Anirban Roy the Indian editor. The Asian and European sites now include more multimedia features and lifestyle pages, and the WSJ.com Mobile Reader has been expanded to those locations.