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.

The Publishers Information Bureau of The Magazine Publishers of America tracks magazine revenue and advertising pages each month. The study covers all major magazines and weekly newspaper inserts.

PIB, as it is called in the industry, takes gross pages and multiplies them by published rates for advertising pages by magazine. So, discounting is not reflected in the numbers. Assuming that the market makes all major magazine discount at about the same rate, the numbers are good from a directional standpoint.

In the period from January to July 2006 compared to the same period in 2005, the larger magazines at Time, Inc. did not do terribly well, and indication that revenue and operating profits at the group may not be strong for the second half of the year. With the costs of postage, ink, and transportation rising, mostly due to higher oil prices, margins will be squeezed unless revenue is rising smartly.

In the seven month period, Sports Illustrated ad revenue was up .9% to $346 million. Ad pages for SI were flat.