Circulations Down, Readers down, Ads Down, Down Down, Deeper and Down.

I don't want to go on about this like some whinging git, but this meltdown shouldn't come as any surprise. Take a look at the ABC figures for some of the biggest business media brands and how they have changed over time. Here are just a few comaprisons of some weeklies which are largely or entirely dependent on paid sale.

Caterer and Hotelkeeper had a circ of 37437 in 1996. Today just 18807. The Grocer had a circ of 47030 in 1996. Today just 30790. Music Week, 12400 in 1996, just 7960 today. Farmers Weekly sold 96535 copies a week in 1996. Today just 70315. And finally, Campaign, the advertisers bible. In 1996 circ of 16280 and today just 10112.

Whatever the reason, business mags are losing readers and have been for more than ten years. Lets wake up and smell the coffee. We can't live with the status quo any longer.

So We Said Thank You for the Music Week

The definitive trade mag for the music industry, Music Week, is firing journalists both online and offline and, according to Press Gazette, running without a news desk - which is tough for a news weekly! The title is loss making. How the mighty has fallen.

In the late nineties Music Week spawned early online consumer music web property dotmusic. It couldn't find an economic model, refusing to play dirty by allowing downloads, and was sold by United Business Media for chips. A missed opportunity for sure.

Having tried unsuccessfuly to sell the trade mag a couple of years ago, CMPi now finds itself with no profit in the magazine and no online business either.

Is this the future for business magazines, revenue collapse, cut costs, run out of profit, fire the remaining journos and then close the magazine. Grim.