Wish, Gardening Life magazines to fold
Last Updated: Friday, November 14, 2008 | 2:39 PM ET
CBC News
Toronto publisher St. Joseph Media has announced it is closing down two magazines — lifestyle publication Wish and Gardening Life.
Both magazines will cease publication with their December issues, according to president Douglas Knight.
"Read the writing on the wall. Magazines are folding due to lack of advertising revenue."
— Land of Oz
About 20 jobs will be lost.
Knight pointed to cutbacks across Canada, the U.S. and Europe and said the economic slowdown was hurting advertising.
"The global financial crisis has triggered such a sharp decline in advertising markets that prudent media companies around the world are evaluating their portfolios and making tough decisions about those brands least able to withstand the downturn," Knight said in a letter to staff on Friday.
St. Joseph will maintain the 20-Minute Supper Club, a popular feature of Wish that has more than 55,000 members online. It plans to launch a stand-alone website and an annual 20-Minute Supper Club magazine in 2009.
It also will add a new home and gardening supplement to its Toronto Life magazine.
The company says its other publications, including Toronto Life, FASHION Magazine and Canadian Family, have "outperformed the market and are well-positioned to weather the storm."
