Fairfax pulls plug on business mag

By MICHAEL FOREMAN

Australian publishing company Fairfax Business Media is to close the New Zealand edition of Business Online magazine, seven months after the title was launched.

Publisher Michael Gill said the magazine would close after its June issue because "difficult economic times have limited its potential to make progress."

Editor Neville Glaser said he believed the closure was a tactical mistake.

The magazine was about to break even and advertisers were beginning to buy into its niche targeting, he said.

Fairfax could not see the huge potential and might have thought the magazine would never make money.

"Personally, I think Business Online would have been very successful if they had only held on for a bit longer."

The closure follows recent restructuring by Fairfax of its Strategic Publishing titles in Australia, which it acquired in December.

It is understood that MIS New Zealand, Fairfax's sole remaining publication in New Zealand, has not been affected by the restructuring.