Cleveland paper kills magazine

Further to the "Newspaper decline accelerating" post below, the Cleveland Plain Dealer announced today that it's killing off its Sunday magazine section that has been published since 1919. In the time-honored tradition, they blamed a "stagnant economy". Hmmm, 3.9% GDP growth last year, 3.4% this year -- right, that's stagnation. Or anyway, it's close enough when you're looking for an alibi.

A little later in the article they get more realistic:

Clifton explained that glossy Sunday magazines have lost advertising support as opportunities for color printing opened in other sections of the paper.

Okay, that excuse we'll buy. Of course maybe the 4.5% circulation decline the PD announced on Monday had something to do with it, too.