6634: The King Is Dead.

From Target Market News…

King Magazine to close with upcoming issue due to ‘economic conditions’

By Richard Prince

After six years and 50 issues, King magazine, which dubs itself “the illest men’s magazine ever,” is folding, publisher Dennis S. Page confirmed Wednesday.

King’s full-time staff of about seven is being let go, he said, and its next issue, now in production, will be its last.

“It’s brutal out there,” Page told Journal-isms. “It’s the worst economic conditions in 30 years.”

Page is also publisher of SLAM (on basketball), XXL (hip-hop music), Rides (automobiles) and Antenna (“what drops next” in consumer products). All are published by New York-based Harris Publications.

King reported an average circulation of 173,530 for the six months ending Dec. 31, down 11.3 percent from the year before. Advertising, not circulation, was the problem, Page said. The publication’s revenue staples were automobile and alcohol ads.

Page said XXL, as a music magazine, did not have the same problem and that there were “no concerns” about it folding.

Additional Note: Jimi Izrael offers his perspective at The Root.