– by Robin Miller –
“It was not yet making money,” says
Imagine Media President Nancy O’Neill, so
Maximum Linux, along with six other Imagine publications, is no more.
The issue now on the stands will be the last one published. The company is paying kill fees to writers who have assignments that will not now be published. “We’re trying to do the right thing,” says O’Neill.
Details about other moves by Imagine are on the Web site of parent company The Future Network. Among them — and a lot larger in the overall publishing scheme of things than the closing of a small magazine covering Linux — is the announcement that “it has appointed Morgan Stanley Dean Witter to review strategic alternatives for the next stage of the development of its US-based magazine, Business 2.0.“
In other words: Hey! Want to buy a ‘new economy’ business magazine?
Imagine is only part of the bringdown at The Future Network. Worldwide, the 16-year-old British company is closing or seelling 20 “loss-making” magazines, which will reduce their total number of titles from 134 to 114. They are also shutting down five of their “smaller” Web sites and laying off 75 US and UK employees who worked on them.
In total, the company’s missive says, “The above actions will result in a reduction across the group of approximately 350 jobs out of a current workforce of approximately 2,000 employees.”
O’Neill says Maximum Linux only had four full-time employees, and she will try to find them oppurtunities in other parts of the business, but that she is also worried about the “host of freelancers and part-timers” who depended on Maximum Linux for all or part of their income.
“This has a been a miserable day,” says O’Neill.
Anyway, if you have always had a hankering to own the cool domain name, MaximumLinux.com, this is your chance. It’s up for sale. O’Neill didn’t give an exact price but hinted that she was open to offers.
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