Last Wednesday, Rodale announced that its popular men’s magazine, Best Life, would close; its May issue (on newsstands next month) will be its last and, according to AdAge.com, the website will be going dark as well. The five-year-old title, a spinoff of Men’s Health, actually had a 6.6 percent increase in ad sales last year and an average circulation of about 520,000. But, after reporting a first quarter drop in ad sales of 36.3 percent, the decision was made to fold the magazine.
Despite snagging covers with Anderson Cooper and Jay-Z and writers like David Mamet and Ricky Gervais, Rodale’s president and CEO Steven Pleshette Murphy announced the closing on Wednesday saying, “Given the challenges of the advertising market and general conditions, Best Life could not meet our internal benchmarks. We have made the decision to focus our resources on our core brands and capitalize on opportunities across new and emerging media platforms.”
So what does that mean for its employees? Those who were laid off each received a severance of two weeks of pay for every year employed at the company. And, as of Friday, Rodale hasn’t offered to place former Best Life staffers elsewhere within the company.
Best Life received an honorable mention in Capell’s Circulation Report in 2008, after seeing a 19 percent gain in newsstand sales. It also made AdWeek’s “Top 10 Under 50” list in 2007 and 2008, which recognizes the best magazines that earn less than $50 million annually. Coincidentally, two others that made the ‘07 list, Domino and Cottage Living, also were recently shut down.
In another case of unfortunate irony, Best Life’s April edition was its annual personal success issue, which focused on career growth. The issue’s letter from EIC Stephen Perrine makes us wonder if he saw his magazine’s demise coming. In it, he encouraged readers that the economy will get better, and that “where you are right now is only for right now.”
This past week also marked the closing of Travel + Leisure Golf and layoffs at Time Inc.’s GOLF magazine.
