Magazines
The song is over for Blender magazine
By Toni Fitzgerald
Mar 27, 2009 - 1:15:03 AM

The Alpha Media Group music magazine will cease publication as of the April issue now on newsstands. The company blamed the recession for the move in a statement issued today.

“Blender has provided unmatched music coverage and entertainment news in its unique voice to a profoundly dedicated audience of music enthusiasts since 2001. However, given the reality of the current economic climate, we are unable to continue publication,” said Stephen Duggan, Alpha’s chief executive.

Many had seen Blender as a title in danger after a weak 2008 in terms of ad sales. The magazine saw its ad pages plummet 30.6 percent year to year, from 752.09 to 522.07, and ad revenue dipped 20 percent for the year, according to the Publishers Information Bureau.

Newsstand sales for the magazine, considered an indicator of a title’s health, declined 17.8 percent during the second half of 2008, though overall circulation was up slightly, to 913,000, due to subscription gains.

About 30 employees will reportedly lose their jobs from the closure, though like Playgirl and Radar, entertainment magazines that folded last year, Blender will live on with its web site, Blender.com.

Blender’s former editor in chief, Joe Levy, will become editor in chief of Alpha’s Maxim, which will integrate its editorial operations with Maxim.com. Former Maxim Digital editor in chief Jay Woodruff will move to chief content officer of the magazine. That leaves current Maxim editor Jim Kaminsky out of a job.

Alpha, with backing from Quadrangle Capital Partners, acquired Maxim, Blender and Stuff from British publisher Felix Dennis in 2007 in a $240 million deal.

Since then, Alpha has had numerous growing pains, including the departure last year of former Wenner Media executive Kent Brownridge. Today Alpha said that co-CEO Glenn Rosenbloom, one of Brownridge’s successors, is also exiting.

Commenting on Blender's demise, the Grim Reaper, the anonymous magazine watcher who tracks endangered titles, blames poor decisions on the part of Alpha rather than the ad economy.

"This was a perfectly well done and successful magazine that was undone by the poor management," he writes.

"In one year, the new management hired Joe Levy away from Rolling Stone to edit the magazine, raised the rate base to some crazy science fiction number, and hired the new publisher from Reader's Digest. Somehow, in the middle of all of this, they forgot people were downloading music from the internet and barely paid attention to Blender's own web site. I've been predicting Blender's demise for a long time."

With Blender’s demise, Maxim will be Alpha’s only remaining magazine. Stuff was shuttered shortly after being bought from Dennis.

Blender is just the latest title to shut down this year, joining American Express Publishing's Travel + Leisure Golf, Rodale's Best Life and Conde Nast's Domino, among many others.