At least 30 journalists have lost their jobs following the closure of the weekly e-commerce magazine Industry Stand-ard Europe.
The closure – just six months after its launch – has affected 65 staff based at business magazine publisher IDG. It was attributed to a downturn in display advertising revenue.
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Although the London bureau will remain open, the website is currently being run by a skeleton staff.
Speculation that the magazine might close had been rife since a spate of redundancies were announced on the US title earlier this year. Staff were finally told about the UK job losses last week. One ex-staffer said chief executive Neil Thackray looked "completely gutted" when he broke the news to staff. "He moved heaven and earth to try to find a partner, there was even a small ripple of applause at the end. The atmosphere was far from sour," a source said.
The launch coincided with plans for major European expansion. The magazine proved a phenomenal success in the US, and the UK edition employed a number of top journalists including Jim Ledbetter, the ex-New York bureau chief of the US edition; Paul Mungo, previously commissioning editor of FT Business; Mike Butcher, the former
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editor of New Media Age; Victor Smart,
former editor of Public Finance and Management Today and Georgia Cameron Clarke, former deputy editor of the Daily Telegraph’s internet section.
Despite its success in the US, senior industry figures in this country expressed concern about the UK launch, given the recent history of internet start-ups.
Meanwhile, Future is still understood to be seeking a buyer for Business 2.0, which operates in a similar market.
By Ruth Addicott
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