Magazine Death Pool

American Heritage Magazine -- back from the dead for your history lesson

As a holiday gift, The Reaper has decided to "throw one back into the river." You know, being a humanitarian and conservationist and all.

So here is American Heritage magazine, "the 54-year-old magazine of the American experience" which was closed by Forbes, is now back "from a brief hiatus" after being sold to Edwin S. Grosvenor and a group of backers for $500,000 plus subscription liabilities.

For you trivia buffs, Mr. Grosvenor is the great-grandson of Alexander Graham Bell, so when you are connected with history, why not take a flying leap at an ink on paper publication focused on American history?

Mr. Grosvenor, you and your backers are brave souls to be investing in a magazine these days. It's a holiday miracle, I tell you, a miracle!

Holiday wishes from your friendly Grim Reaper!

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas,
Just like the ones I used to know.
When I had a bonus,
And the boss wouldn't phone us,
To tell us the party had to go.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas,
And with every resume I send,
Does Facebook want a researcher who writes?
Before they close down my magazine tonight.

Rumors flying about Hollywood Life and Filter magazines -- but Filter clears the record!

It's cold and nasty in the depth of December. I'm out there hunting for fresh ink-on-paper meat. Hark! What's that? Filthy anonymous rumors with absolutely no way to tell if they are credible or not! It's terrible when I receive this kind of unsubstantiated dribble.

Ahhhhh, well that took about two seconds. The Reaper smells a bit of blood, so I will share them with you, as you may know more.

Our first rumor is devoted to our readers' favorite magazine, Movieline Hollywood Life. Every time I mention them, it's like throwing bread to the pigeons. In a note with the subject line "Hollywood Life, er, Death," this reader shares the following: "Hollywood Life is scaling back to quarterly publication, changing its name to 'HL', going through yet another redesign, and completely cutting out anything movie related to focus solely on fashion and luxury."

Looks like Movieline Hollywood Life, or whatever it is today, is going the deadly route of Tango (may it rest in peace) by cutting back to quarterly frequency.

Our second rumor comes flying in from the left coast about music rag Filter, and it's always sad when it involves music rags since they are a small and perhaps endangered species: "We hear Filter Magazine, the bimonthly music mag based in LA, will not make it to Christmas. Their ME left earlier this year and has yet to be replaced. Their AD just left to be replaced by a cheaper, greener one. The current issue is smaller than previous holiday issues - they even had to give away a substantial portion of the back book in the end.

Word is the editors' obstinance on issues of print quality and paper stock are keeping the publishing arm of the Filter media group in the red and with enough local competition (let alone the Pitchfork and Stereogum heat) the mag will likely be transitioned into a quarterly give-away music guide for placement in retail outlets."

UPDATE: You get one anonymous disgruntled ex-employee e-mail and the Filter people come roaring back. "Just about everything you mentioned about FILTER is completely untrue. Every issue for the past 5 years has been the exact same page count and paper quality. We are thrilled with the creative staff we have  and look forward to a very promising '08." There you go - so there, rumormongers! I told you not to pick on music rags!

RIP: Blueprint December 2007

Oh Martha!

We bagged ourselves the first game of hunting season, and it's another shelter magazine.

Just not enough ad juice to keep it going, and when you are right in the crosshairs of the whole housing marketing tanking, well, you're in trouble.

The Reaper can always use tips on how to stuff and mount magazine publisher heads over the fireplace, so this will come in handy.