PC Magazine to discontinue print version

PC Magazine will cease its print version and will be available in digital format only on the internet, announced the publishers, Ziff-Davis Publishing Holdings Inc, in New York.

In an official communiqué, the publishers said that "the print edition of PC Magazine would be discontinued, however, the online version would live on".

The 27-year-old flagship of Ziff-Davis is the latest of several magazines that publishers had to discontinue in the print form, as advertising all over the world is plummetting due to the current financial crisis.

"The viability for us to continue to publish in print just isn't there anymore," Jason Young, Chief Executive of Ziff Davis, said in an interview distributed to the international media.

"While most magazines make their money mainly from print advertising, PC Magazine derives most of its profit from its website. More than 80 per cent of the profit and about 70 per cent of the revenue come from the digital business," Young said.

All of the writers and editors have been counted as part of the digital budget for two years.

The change will not require much of an adjustment, because the focus has been on getting articles to the web first, said Lance Ulanoff, Editor of PCMag Digital Network, which is what PCMag.com and its accompanying websites were renamed last week.

"All content goes online first, and print has been cherry-picking for some time what it wants for the print edition," Ulanoff said.

Circulation at PC Magazine has been declining since the late 1990s when it hit a peak of 1.2 million. This year, the magazine's rate base was 600,000.

Young said while the print magazine would be profitable in 2008, he forecast that it would lose money in 2009 because of fewer ads and rising costs. The final print edition will be the January 2009 issue.

However, the fate of the Middle East version of PC Magazine is still not known as its publishers in the region, DIT Group, were not available for comment.

The Dubai Media City-based DIT Group is one of the Middle East's leading Arabic and English language publishing houses with several market leading monthly titles within the technology, lifestyle and business segments, including the Arabic version of Forbes.

The first edition of PC Magazine was published in January 1982 as a monthly called PC. The "Magazine" was not added to the logo until the first major redesign in January 1986. PC Magazine was created by David Bunnell and financed by Tony Gold, former owner of Lifeboat Associates.

Eventually when the magazine fell short of finances, Gold sold is to Ziff-Davis Publishing. PC Magazine then moved to New York and became a biweekly publication in 1983 after a single monthly issue swelled to more than 800 pages.

"Obviously, the macroeconomic condition is putting pretty significant pressure on all forms of advertising," Young said pointing to the reason for discontinuing the print version.

The company is also considering taking its other print magazine, the video-game publication Electronic Gaming Monthly, into an online-only format, but would not make a decision before the end of the year.

In the recent past, many other publishers, affected by the cash crunch from advertisers, have resorted to the digital version and stopped the print formats.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced it would go online only beginning in January 2009.

The Christian Science Monitor had also announced in October that it would cease printing its paper weekday edition in favour of its website.

CosmoGirl was probably the most popular title to close its print version and keep its presence only on the internet. The Hearst Corporation, publishers of CosmoGirl, announced this decision in October.

Time Inc has officially announced the closure of Cottage Living, along with the CottageLiving.com website.

Advertising pages for the December issues of monthly magazines in the United States are said to be down more than 17 per cent from the December issues of 2007, according to the publishing industry sources.

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