Will the Last One Out please Turn out the Lights...

Well, I guess you had to see this coming...

NEW YORK - The Nielsen Co. is selling some of its most prominent trade journals — including The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard — and shutting down Editor & Publisher, which has chronicled the newspaper business for 108 years.

These closures are going to become more common.  Newsweek certainly won't make it to the end of 2010. 

Frankly, the most recent issue of Phoenix New Times at only 94 pages is making me nervous, and The Arizona Guardian is going to have trouble staying hip without Paul Giblin and Patti Epler. 

(Some readers may wonder why I consistently express support for New Times and the Guardian.  I guess I'm more offended by the corporate, herd nature of the MSM than I am by my concerns of bias.  New Times is unabashedly liberal while the Guardian tries to play it straight, but both provide non-MSM alternatives while the MSM papers become more and more homogeneous.)

Comments

[James L.]

"Newsweek certainly won't make it to the end of 2010." Wow! Pretty bold statement. I hope you comment on this at the beginning of 2011=particularly if you're wrong.

[Brian]

I'm a classical liberal, but I enjoy reading the New Times. I don't always agree with what they write, but they have a lot of good writers and put out some good articles.

[RsMantra]

turn OUR the lights?

[BobH]

Poor E&P: Given the problems of the magazine and newspaper businesses, what could possibly be worse than to be a magazine that covers newspapers?

Greg is probably right about Newsweek, but just to give him some cover, here's another such prediction: "10 Brands That Will Disappear in 2010". Newsweek is #1 on the list.
http://www.businessinsider.com/brands-that-will-disappear-in-2010-2009-12

[Paul Giblin]

The Arizona Guardian has been having zero trouble staying hip with Mary K. Reinhart and Dennis Welch at the helm.
-- Paul Giblin