Five of the largest companies in the print business are testing the digital waters together. Rather than yield their content to alien formats, Time Inc. (TWX), News Corp. (NWS), Conde Nast, Hearst and Meredith Corp. have announced plans to develop a digital content format of their own. This new product would compete with the newly released Nook from Barnes & Noble (BKS), as well as one from Sony (SNE) and the industry-leading Kindle from Amazon (AMZN). The new e-reader content will come in color and in a format that would work across several devices.

The five media companies are equal partners in this joint venture, which will allow publishers to set their own prices for their content -- an obvious response to what they see as unfavorable revenue share deals offered by Amazon earlier this year. Rupert Murdoch has been particularly vocal on this issue, particularly about the fact that News Corp. only receives a little more than a third of the $14.99 a month it costs to subscribe to the Wall Street Journal on a Kindle. He says of the device that it's "a fantastic invention for reading books. It is not much of an experience for newspapers."

The mayhem in the media industry continues. The Wall Street Journal, a News Corp (NASDAQ: NWS) property, is closing its Boston bureau and sending nine employees into the wind. The newswire and MarketWatch operations are going to stay open in Boston, however, with no headcount impact.

The Journal doesn't have any plans to close other offices, according to a memo by managing editor Robert Thomson: "there are no plans, nascent or otherwise, to close any other U.S. or international bureau." The WSJ will still support an "investigative function" in Boston, but the New York-based Money and Investing team will cover Boston's mutual fund industry, which boasts such heavy hitters as Fidelity.

At the same time, magazine company Time Inc., owned by Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) is looking to cut $100 million in expenses, and layoffs will undoubtedly figure into the equation. The company that owns Time, Fortune, People and Sports Illustrated – and falls under the same umbrella as AOL, which owns BloggingStocks – is feeling the squeeze of a media recession that's even worse than the regular recession we've all been battling for what feels like decades.

Conde Nast is ditching Domino, the "style magazine that focuses on life at home." The magazine was launched in April of 2005, and CEO Charles H. Townsend said that the decision to abandon the projects was driven "entirely" by the economy.

The magazine's editor told The New York Times that "We tried to create a marriage between the beautiful image magazines and the useful service magazines. Editorially, we did what we set out to do, and in this economy, sadly, that's not enough."

The magazine was burning cash as its ad revenue declined with the housing industry.

Conde Nast's magazine empire is storied, full of names that lead their respective empires. Vogue is not only the leading women's fashion title in the world, but also the inspiration for many a book, movie, and TV show. Gourmet is the formidable leader in food magazines; Travel + Leisure is the first/only name in travel; and The New Yorker is a category in and of itself (far exceeding the geographical borders set by its name). House & Garden is what many consider the premier "shelter" magazine, a title that defined the category for a half-century before the category was even named.

But today, Conde Nast announced in a brief missive that the magazine, along with its companion web site, would both be shuttered after the December 2007 issue, a sudden and final blow to a title whose audience, perhaps, had aged out of the market for aspirational goods like Wolf ranges and Vespas (the magazine's readership of nearly six million has a median age of 51, and average income of $124,582). Could the magazine's advertisers have been affected by the sub-prime meltdown? Without a home equity line of credit, you can't afford $1,700 tubular fireplaces, I expect, or anything to be found in Gwyneth Paltrow's abode.

The website still brightly reports that, if you subscribe today, you're guaranteed the Gwyneth Paltrow issue -- her Hamptons home is profiled, along with the Harlem penthouse of Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) darling Marcus Samuelsson. The sense of doom hasn't yet struck Gwyneth's happy purpleness.

Also from Luxist: Are shelter magazines in trouble?

In a time when print magazines such as Life are folding (again) one could argue launching a new magazine is either bold or foolish. Since Condé Nast's new slick Portfolio is focused on business and marketed to executives, one would hope the business decision behind its creation is inspired.

The magazine takes a different tact from Business Week and others that depend on timeliness. Portfolio promises more in-depth, big-picture stories, similar to the editorial content of other CN flagship publications such as GQ, Wired, The New Yorker and Architectural Digest.

Portfolio fills a niche missing in Advance Publication's Condé Nast stable, and will allow it to further leverage advertising sales over a broader demographic. It has launched with an expectation that circulation will hit 350,000 this year, and it plans to market the magazine through American City Business Journals, another branch of the privately-held Advance Publications family.

CN expects the readership to skew 2-1 male, with a median family income over $140,000, household assets in excess of $1.5 million, and investments over $1 million.

I don't expect to receive any subscription offers.