Why Press Gazette, UK’s Trade Journalism Bible, Has Died

imageThings are so bad for the UK’s print media that the industry can’t even sustain its own trade magazine. On Monday B2B publisher Wilmington Business announced that its 43-year-old title Press Gazette — where I worked for two years as a reporter on the newspapers beat — will be shut down and that its website will no longer publish original content, in favor of classified jobs, news on Wilmington’s events and a possible tie-in with the company’s PR database business. paidContent:UK broke the news soon after that the magazine’s three editorial and three commercial staff are being dismissed.

While it’s not surprising Wilmington has killed the expensive, unprofitable, print edition, that there will be no more news on Pressgazette.co.uk is a real blow for its staff and readers. The site had improved its coverage in recent months and rolled out a series of blogs after changing the magazine from weekly to monthly to concentrate on online news. But such is the turmoil and revenue loss of British trade titles, it wasn’t enough to convince the company’s board to keep it alive any longer. Read the full story at our sister site paidContent:UK.

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