Forbes laid off almost 20 people to save money. It is putting its online newsroom and print writers together. Yesterday, McGraw-Hill (NYSE: MGP), the publisher of BusinessWeek, cut several hundred people. US News, which used to have a strong business and personal finance section, is going from weekly to monthly to save money. There are rumors in the market that SmartMoney, a joint venture between Dow Jones and Hearst, is losing money.

The horrible thing about all of this and the layoffs at business sections of newspapers, is that the reporters who work the business and financial beats are writing their own obituaries. As they chronicle the demise of print media, the slowing of Internet advertising, and deepening recession, they have to go to work every day hoping that they will not find a pink slips on their desks.

What happens to these people?. They will not find jobs in the traditional media, but there is a model in the newspaper industry that may given them some hope. In many cities where dailies are struggling to survive and layoffs are plentiful, out-of-work writers are banding together to start websites to compete with the local press. Setting up these websites is cheap. The reporters already know their subjects as well as anyone else. They only need very modest ad revenue to do relatively well.

Business reporters may go the same route. Look for a lot of new, smaller financial websites to open staffed by laid off writers and watch them give the traditional press a run for its money

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 24/7wallst.com.

The business press: The horror of writing your own obit originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 08 Jan 2009 10:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

US News admitted that the advertising climate and competition from Time and Newsweek was too tough, so after decades as a weekly, it said a while back that it would publish 26 times in 2009. That is a lot of savings in printing and postage. The publication probably let a few people go.

But the magazine never made it to its new publishing frequency. Things are so bad in print advertising that now it says it will go monthly. According to The New York Times "Just five months after saying it would drop its frequency to every other week, U.S. News & World Report has decided instead to become a monthly magazine."

The magazine, which was founded in 1948, might as well fold. Putting out a news publication once a month when the internet allows people to get news minute-by-minute is not a smart idea. There is a good chance the magazine will not be around at the end of next year.

Over the last week, large magazine publishers like Rodale, Time, Inc., and Conde Nast have put a total of over 1,000 people out of work. The magazine industry is beginning to look like the newspaper sector. That means it is trapped without a way out.

As magazine publishers focus more on the internet, they confront competition like Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) News and CNN. Even on the web, publishing is too crowded for everyone to make it.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247WallSt.com.

As US News goes monthly, magazines must face their fate originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.