Stop the presses:
E&P is folding
The Nielsen title covered newspapers for 125 years
By Louisa Ada Seltzer
Dec 11, 2009
The future of newspapers is apparently so dim that there's no room for the trade publication that has covered them for more than 100 years.
Yesterday Nielsen Business Media said it is shutting down Editor & Publisher, a decision that shocked members of its staff as well as others throughout the industry, who had expected the title to go online only or be sold along with six other trades that are being purchased by e5 Global Media.
Nielsen will also shut down the 76-year-old Kirkus Reviews, with both titles done at the end of this year. Eighteen people on the two magazines will be laid off.
"We're part of a besieged industry, magazine publishing, and we're covering another besieged industry, newspapers, so it's kind of a double whammy," E&P editor Greg Mitchell told the Los Angeles Times' Geraldine Baum.
E&P staffers Twittered about the shutdown yesterday after they learned about it in a morning meeting. Some appealed for job leads, others said they hoped that the title will continue in some format under another owner.
Editor & Publisher peaked as the No. 4 trending topic on Twitter yesterday, and it received extensive coverage on newspaper web sites including nytimes.com, washingtonpost.com and latimes.com.
The closure seemed more a judgment on the future of newspapers than on the stability of trade titles. With e5's acquisition yesterday, long-struggling magazines such as Mediaweek, Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter look to be stable for the time being, though rumors have abounded that any one of them could be going online only.
"I'm shocked that a way was not found for the magazine to continue it some form -- and remain hopeful that this may still occur," Mitchell told E&P's own Shawn Moynihan, who was put in the unusual position of covering his own magazine's demise.
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