This Week in the Mercury
Monday, June 15, 2009
Media Print Media Death Watch: PDX Magazine Quits
Posted by Sarah Mirk on Mon, Jun 15, 2009 at 12:46 PM
Hollyanna McCollom, editor-in-chief of PDX Magazine, announced the demise of the glossy local magazine this morning on the magazine's blog:
Our operation has always been quite small (usually a core group of 4-5 people assembling content/writing/editing/designing), and of late that has been to our benefit. When things got tough, we got creative. We buckled down. We worked harder and longer and we made sacrifices wherever we could. Sadly, the challenges of creating a high-quality print publication every month outweigh the practicalities of sustaining it any longer.
More details on the closure when we have them — in the meantime, best of luck to the magazine's writers.
UPDATE: More details on what happened and what's next for PDX mag from McCollom below the cut.
Hollyana McCollom just sent me this email and it's all interesting info, so I figure it's best just to quote her in full:
I cannot offer you many details at this time, but to answer your questions...Our paid staff upon closure consisted of 1 editor and 1 assistant editor, 1 designer/art director (who also did half the magazine's photography, 1 production coordinator (website, contracts, ad building, design), and 1 sales director. In the past year, we have lost 1 assistant editor, a lead graphic designer, our fashion editor and our marketing director due to cutbacks. Since late last year, we have been operating on the bare bones of what it takes to make a magazine run and those of us who remained broke our backs to make it work. Approximately 90% of our editorial content and photography (in print and online) was produced by the aforementioned staff. We used freelancers for a while but as the budget tightened, we decided to save costs by hiring interns or writers/photographers who were willing to work in trade.Not surprisingly, I the economy was at the root of the decision to shut down. Ad sales all over the world have seen an acute decline and publications everywhere are feeling the pinch. As a publication with an advertising-based revenue, we had to recognize that we could no longer produce a monthly publication to the standards necessary to make it worthwhile.
We are not certain yet if the June issue will make it to the stands (but it is online). The July issue has been shelved, but I will endeavor to run as many articles as possible online for the sake of the writers who put so much effort into completing them. We do not know at this time if the magazine will continue to have an online presence.
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