Time Inc. to Close Business 2.0
The latest dot-com casualty comes from the newsstand, not the Internet. — Business 2.0, a monthly magazine about the new economy, will be shut down rather than sold, its owners at Time Inc. have decided. The publication, which has been suffering …
Context & Ripple Effects
A July report had warned that advertising weakness threatened Business 2.0; Time Inc. has instead chosen closure over a sale. The decision follows its suspension of Teen People's print edition, indicating a willingness to cut weaker print titles from the portfolio.
The move also sits alongside Time Inc.'s effort to concentrate on selected web properties, after a review that identified its web winners while leaving its flagship outside that group.
First-order effects
- Business 2.0's staff, readers and advertisers lose a monthly technology-and-new-economy outlet as Time Inc. ends the title rather than transferring it to a buyer.
- Time Inc. removes a magazine whose advertising outlook had been publicly questioned, narrowing its print portfolio.
Second-order effects
- Time Inc.'s remaining titles and digital properties face greater pressure to prove that their audiences can support sustainable advertising or other revenue.
- Advertisers seeking Business 2.0's start-up and technology readership must redirect those placements to other publications or online outlets.
Third-order effects
- If publishers continue closing rather than selling ad-strained titles, magazine portfolios will become more concentrated around brands that can justify investment across print and digital.
- The closure reinforces a shift from maintaining broad print catalogs toward allocating resources to a smaller set of web priorities and durable brands.
The trend: Magazine publishers are pruning ad-dependent print titles while concentrating investment on the digital properties they judge strongest.