Member News: Editor and Publisher folds

WASHINGTON — The Nielsen Co. announced Thursday it was closing Editor and Publisher, a magazine which has chronicled the news industry for over a century, and selling several other brands to a newly formed company.

Kirkus Reviews, a book review publication which was founded in 1933, is also being shut down, a Nielsen spokeswoman said.

In a statement, Nielsen said eight brands, including the Hollywood Reporter and Billboard, were being sold to e5 Global Media LLC, a new company formed by Pluribus Capital Management and Guggenheim Partners.

Nielsen said the other brands included in the sale by Nielsen Business Media are Adweek, Brandweek, Mediaweek, The Clio Awards, Back Stage and Film Journal International.

It said e5 Global Media will also acquire Nielsen’s Film Expo business, which includes the ShoWest, ShowEast, Cinema Expo International and CineAsia trade shows.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed and it was not immediately known how many employees would be affected by the closure of Kirkus Reviews and Editor and Publisher.

Pluribus, founded in 2009, is a private equity company while Guggenheim is a privately held financial services firm managing more than 100 billion dollars in assets.

Editor and Publisher editor Greg Mitchell said in a message on his Twitter feed that employees at the magazine were “shocked and trying to cope.”

“E&P was one of oldest magazines in USA,” he said. “Long battler for First Amendment, reporter rights, watchdog of industry.”

Editor and Publisher was launched in 1901 and merged in 1907 with The Journalist, a weekly founded in 1884.

Its closure comes as US newspapers and magazine grapple with declining print advertising revenue, falling circulation and the migration of readers to free news online.

Editor and Publisher stopped publishing weekly in January 2004 and began publishing monthly.