What is the fate of Business 2.0?

It hasn't exactly been a huge secret that that ad sales have become less predictable and in many cases outright awful for almost any publication printed on paper. The New York Times has an article this morning discussing Time Warner Inc.'s (NYSE:TWX) Business 2.0 magazine. Business 2.0 covers technology and information technology companies and trends and, frankly, has been a great source of information during its seven-year history.

Unfortunately, it appears that being a good publication just may not be enough these days. The New York Times is reporting that the September issue may be the final issue. The reason, of course, is a sharp ad drop. It notes a 38% drop through July 9 of this year, citing Magazine Publishers of America. The amazing thing is that the reader interest is there with the 2006 paid circulation of 623,000. Ad spending or not, it's a pretty sad day if a publication of this quality cannot make it on a subscriber base of that size.

Ad sales department consolidation may be to blame. A focus shift to the larger magazine titles is also cited. As always, follow the money. If an ad salesperson can make $5,000 for placing an ad in the top magazines, they are probably going to spend less time trying to make $1,000 on the smaller magazines. There have recently been changes at the top of the Time Inc. Business & Finance Network, yet it is far too soon to know if this will pay off.

The former Time magazine technology editor has also reportedly approached VC's about buying the magazine to break it out of Time. This is a sad state of affairs when solid publications such as this cannot prove to be profitable enough to stay afloat -- particularly with such high-paid circulation.

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.