Centaur Media is shutting down the print edition of New Media Age – the market leading weekly magazine for the UK digital marketing industry.
Launched as a newsletter in 1995, NMA went on to become a weekly magazine in 1998, and its annual NMA Awards are now a highlight of the UK digital marketing calendar.
The move comes as part of a wider cost-cutting drive at Centaur, which will also see Design Week go online only.
The last editions of New Media Age and Design Week will go on sale this week.
However, both brands will continue to exist online and the New Media Age name will also be used on a monthly digital marketing supplement in Marketing Week.
The publishing and event firm is restructuring its company into three main operating divisions to increase revenue and margin growth, saying the plan will result in significant cost savings and operational benefits.
Centaur is understood to have briefed staff on Monday about the shake-up. It is expected to affect more than 60 jobs – a tenth of its total workforce.
According to a report in The Daily Telegraph, dozens of jobs at Centaur have been placed in consultation and a number of the company’s publishers and editors are understood to have left.
Centaur Media said the restructuring “will have no impact on the group’s underlying performance for the year to 30 June 2011, although there will be a significant non cash impairment charge in relation to the write down of assets affected by the restructuring. Additionally, there will be a cash charge relating to the cost reductions.”
According to the initiatives, the company will merge the legal and financial publishing businesses, integrate the HR and Engineering publishing communities and dispose assets in the logistics, supply chain, recruitment, manufacturing and B2B construction markets.
The three divisional managing directors, together with Geoff Wilmot, the CEO and interim CFO Mark Kerswell, will form the Operating Board, Centaur said.
The titles up for sale are mostly monthly or fortnightly titles and include The Recruiter, a fortnightly magazine, and the monthly The Logistics Manager.
Centaur turned over £59.9m in the year to June 30 2010, and reported a £2.7m operating profit.
Read the official announcement from New Media Age here.
