Alexandra Clough
Jeff Ostrowski
Linda Rawls
Home > Real Estate > Archives > 2007 > April > 14 > Entry
More victims of the slowdown
Magazine publisher Palm Beach Media Group has suspended publication of two magazines and has laid off three people, Chief Operating Officer Bill Wehrman tells me.
The company pulled the plug on Palm Beach Homes & Lifestyles and Boca Raton Homes & Lifestyles. Wehrman didn’t exactly blame the housing slowdown; instead, he said he couldn’t find experienced ad reps for the glossy publications.
“(Advertisers) are all being cautious about trying something new, with all this publicity about real estate,” Wehrman says. “I really believe that experienced magazine salespeople could help educate these businesses about the power of magazines.”
The West Palm Beach-based company continues to publish Sarasota Homes & Lifestyles, Palm Beach Illustrated and several other titles.
Palm Beach Media Group is far from the only publisher struggling with a soft real estate market. The Tampa Tribune said this week it was cutting 70 employees. From the Trib’s story:
“(Executive Editor Janet) Weaver said advertising revenue has fallen off ‘precipitously,’ starting last year and continuing this year, most notably with real estate advertising. Rather than a predictable economic cycle that happens to newspapers periodically, Weaver said she thinks there is a ‘fundamental shift in where advertising is going’” — namely online.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment | Categories: Jeff Ostrowski
Comments
By Residence Reader
April 26, 2007 9:16 AM | Link to this
The post fails to mention the fact that the Sunday Residences section of the Palm Beach Post has had to consolidate its regional issues, the Jupiter and areas North Residences now includes Singer Island and the Gardens and is labelled the North Palm Beach County issue. Why leave out the fact that the PB Post is also being affected by this market.