Rodale’s Best Life, the Men’s Health spinoff that launched in 2004, is shutting down, the company said yesterday, blaming the bleak economy.

The closure comes despite the fact that Best Life was one of the few magazines to actually gain ad pages last year, as the rest of the industry saw an 11.7 percent decline, according to the Publishers Information Bureau.

Best Life ended 2008 up by 6.6 percent, from 584.14 to 622.5. Men’s Health, by comparison, was off 11.5 percent, though it had nearly double the total ad pages, at 1,040.79.

Even during a brutal fourth quarter in which ad pages for all publications fell 17.2 percent, Best Life was up 7.3 percent.

Still, Rodale did not feel that the magazine, which counted on luxury goods advertisers, could ride out the economic crisis.

“Despite the great work of the sales team and the talent of the editorial staff, given the challenges of the advertising market and general conditions, Best Life could not meet our internal benchmarks,” said Rodale CEO Steven Murphy in a memo to staff yesterday.

Paid circulation of Best Life was just over 500,000, a fraction of the size of Rodale's top titles such as Prevention (3.3 million) and Men's Health (1.9 million).

Magazines targeting the luxury goods category have had a rough go of it lately. Earlier this week Travel + Leisure Golf shut down, and upscale home magazine Domino was shuttered last year.

The May issue, which will be released next month, will be Best Life's last. The company did not say how many people will lose their jobs, as some may be reassigned within Rodale.