Dow Jones's personal finance magazine to shutter print edition

Dow Jones & Co will stop publishing the print edition of its personal finance magazine SmartMoney by September, The Wall Street Journal announced on its website.

The Sept. issue of SmartMoney will be its last, and will be on newsstands Aug. 14, according to the release. Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Dahl and two dozen other staff will lose their jobs related to print edition production, Bloomberg reported. However, SmartMoney will add six editorial staff positions to make the total number 15 in order to expand online. 

“It’s clear that the volatility of markets and asset classes has increased the need for rapid delivery of personal finance intelligence, so we will be expanding our team and presence on the Web,” said Robert Thomson, editor-in-chief of Dow Jones and managing editor of the Wall Street Journal.

SmartMoney “has struggled to maintain advertising sales” in recent years, Bloomberg noted. The magazine’s advertising pages fell by 10 percent this year through the June issue in a year-on-year comparison, according to Media Industry Newsletter.

SmartMoney was launched jointly with Dow Jones in 1992 and completely acquired by Dow Jones in 2010, CapitalNewYork explained. Thomson said SmartMoney failed to reach the company’s revenue expectations.

Forbes' Jeff Bercovici noted that ad pages decreased by 23.4 percent in the first quarter of this year, according to a report from Publishers Information Bureau.

"Our SmartMoney web operation will be expanded and provide opportunities for some who will be affected by the closure of the magazine, as will other just-approved expansion plans for the print Journal,” Thomson said.

Image: Examiner