Think the circulation numbers are bad?

It's not even safe to be a weekly gossip magazine any more.

The FAS-FAX circ numbers are out for second half 2007 and I won't review what's been out already. There's a lot of ugliness growing.

A look at Jack Hanrahan's CircMatters newsletter shows two giants missing their rate base (guaranteed issue sales), Reader's Digest and Playboy. People down, Bauer's Life & Style down.

If you think these numbers are bad, wait until the first quarter PIB ad numbers hit the street. We're talking some magazines down in the double digits. Publishers taking in a lot less money than the year before and you know that things were bad last year.

There will be a time of reckoning, the Reaper says. If there is no upside ahead, the Reaper will have a busy spring cleaning this year.

It was Groundhog's Day not long ago and I saw the little feller get up and see his shadow. Six more weeks of winter.  My kind of weather to contemplate who goes next.