Rodale's Best Life Now No Longer Has A Life; Shutting Website Too
This story was written by Tameka Kee.
Even magazines that have been doing relatively well aren't safe from the cash crunch: Rodale is ceasing publication of Best Life, and shutting down bestlifeonline.com. Ad pages at the men's lifestyle pub grew 6.6 percent in 2008 and subscriptions were up too, but the cratering luxury-goods market erased those gains: ad pages were down by more than 36 percent in Q1, according to Crain's.
Site traffic was also down sharply over the past six months, from a high of over 162,000 monthly uniques in September, to about 52,000 in February, per Quantcast. Three-fourths of the 40-member team will be laid off as a result of the closure; the remaining staff, including VP and Publisher Michael Wolfe, and EIC Stephen Perrine, will get new jobs within Rodale. The privately-held company cut about 10 percent of its staff across the board in November, though it hasn't scaled back publication on any of its other titles.
By Tameka Kee