"Editor & Publisher" Went Bust But Will Now Get New Owner

Editor & Publisher owner, Neilsen Co., closed down this venerable newspaper industry information source due to declining revenues. But, was rescued at the last minute by new owner: Duncan McIntosh, Boating Magazine publisher.

From Reuters News Service by Robert MacMillan:

Editor & Publisher, chronicler of the U.S. newspaper business for more than a century, will live again after being shut down two weeks ago.

E&P, as journalists often call it, will resume publication after being sold to boating magazine publisher Duncan McIntosh, it confirmed on its website after Reuters reported the news.

The announcement came two weeks after Nielsen Co shut down the "bible of the newspaper industry" -- as it called itself on its website -- because of financial difficulties.

Current owner Nielsen Co closed the magazine and related website two weeks ago after agreeing to sell its Nielsen Business Media unit to a new company called e5 Global Media, formed by private equity company Pluribus Capital Management and Guggenheim Partners.

Editor & Publisher's own publisher, Charles McKeown, will keep his job, the website reported. Twenty-six-year veteran Mark Fitzgerald will be the new editor, the site said. He replaces Greg Mitchell.

Editor & Publisher closed after suffering the same financial difficulties as the U.S. newspapers it covered. Ad revenue and a drift of readers to the Internet have hurt nearly every U.S. newspaper publisher.

Duncan McIntosh Co Inc publishes magazines such as Boating World and FishRap. The company did not disclose terms of the transaction.

"Such a critical information source for a newspaper industry so desperately in need of help should not go away," McIntosh told Editor & Publisher. "I've been a reader of E&P over the course of 30 years and know its incredible value to readers and advertisers."

Editor & Publisher's closing was one of the most ominous events in the slow decline of the U.S. newspaper business.

Storied publishers from The New York Times Co to Gannett Co Inc and McClatchy Co have received steadily declining amounts of coverage in the news media as their fortunes have fallen.

Editor & Publisher continued to write tough stories about the business even as other media outlets decreased their coverage because they considered publishers to no longer be big enough -- or lucrative enough -- to attract investor interest.