Discover cuts its publisher... let the death odds begin

Discover magazine just laid off its publisher and a senior editor, according to FishbowlNY.

When a magazine lays off its publisher and there's no replacement, that is a seriously bad sign. Nobody running the ad sales team at a small magazine publisher?

ODDS OF SURVIVAL: 15%

Comments

[Steve]

'Tis quite a shame. I've been enjoying Discover for over 20 years. I wonder how long it will be before all print magazines have vanished.

[rundogrun]

Too bad. But a true reflection on the print seller/buyer marketplace - even though readers love this magazine, buyers never did. Probably reminded them too much of high school science class...

[tangerinedream]

Discover- a punch drunk fighter of a magazine. Lurching from owner to owner, management team to management team. Magazines tend to stray from the intentions of their founders. Surprising that this one doesn't feature Holiday Cookie Tips or 101 Ways To Spice Up Your Love Life. At this point get the state commission to lift its license to box and send it off. In short, ripe for Reaper.

[scrbblr]

No surprise, but what a shame! I always paid full price to subscribe, hoping to keep Discover afloat. It was always the classiest, best written, most thoughtful of the popular-science magazines (much more readable than Scientific American, of course, and also less p.c.). Yet it was the overdesigned Popular Science, with its thin, crappy articles and needlessly flashy graphics, that got the ASME for Overall Excellence a few years ago, and it looks like that's the one that will survive.

[Steve]

I subscribed to Discover from the first issue. I wonder how the new mag Science Illustrated is doing?

[Science watcher]

The publisher position is being taken over by the CEO, Donahue. Since he took over, newsstand is up(!) slightly and web traffic is reportedly up a lot. Another bright spot is the brand -- as the comments show, people like this title, and the subscriber base is loyal.