Ladies Home Journal is dead. It’s no longer monthly after 131 years. The news came hidden in an earnings press release from Meredith Publishing earlier this morning.
In the third paragraph of a boring financial notice, this is what is written: “The special items include transaction-related expenses resulting from previously announced agreements to purchase broadcast assets; selected workforce reductions, including those associated with transitioning Ladies’ Home Journal to a special interest publication and closing the Company’s sales force training practice; and certain other non-cash items.”
Huh? That’s how you close a magazine and tell a staff that the jewel in the crown of a publishing company is dead after 13 decades. Remember when Meredith thought they were merging with Time Inc? Things in Iowa must have been worse than they admitted.
Weird side note: for some reason I received a copy of LHJ in the mail the other day. Never asked for it. I guess it’s a souvenir now.
