Time Runs Out For Life, Dies Second Death

Time Inc. closes down Life magazine
2nd death for one of America's most successful mass-market weeklies

Life magazine was the great creation of Time Inc. founder Henry Luce, and the dream of its revival lingered in the halls of the Time-Life building for years after its first death in 1972 as one of America's most successful mass-market weeklies.

In October 2004 Life resumed publishing as a weekly, this time as a supplement inserted in newspapers around the country on Fridays, aiming to catch readers before they headed out for their weekend shopping.

It was a grand idea, and it reached some 13 million readers, but Life never caught with advertisers, and early this morning Time Inc. made official what many in media had been anticipating for some time: Life is closing, this time presumably for good.

In a statement this morning announcing the closing, Time Inc. Chairman, CEO Ann Moore is quoted as saying:

"Life magazine was a truly innovative publishing venture. It was developed, edited and published by some of the best talent in the business and we can remain proud of its many achievements. But sometimes we have to make tough calls, and this was one.”

Says Moore: “Growth requires taking risks and the potential upside was huge, but unfortunately the timing worked against us. The market has moved dramatically since October 2004 and it is no longer appropriate to continue publication of Life as a newspaper supplement."

Life will live on on the internet as a photo portal, housing a collection of 10 million images assembled over the years.

Life ended 2006 with 395.53 ad pages, up 5.5 percent over 2005, but pages this year took a tumble, falling by more than 20 percent by February versus the first two months of 2006, amid more and more rumors that it would soon close.

Life has a circulation of 13,381,344 and is inserted in more than 100 newspapers. The last issue will be dated April 20.

The Life relaunch offered advertisers the promise of a high-quality weekend magazine, one coming out on Fridays, which in theory would make a more effective ad vehicle that the Sunday titles Parade and USA Weekend, which arrive in Sunday papers.

But from the first media buyers were doubtful. They didn't see any real need for another weekend title, and they were far less optimistic that the revived title could hook newspaper readers. While Life was an important magazine in its time, it had folded well before a lot of readers were born.

In a Media Life story in late 2005, Serge Del Grosso, executive vice president and director of media planning at Lowe New York, summed up the sentiments of a number of media buyers.

“The big challenge was how did Life, which is such an old and established media brand, connect relevantly to today’s media marketplace. [Advertisers] are not going to support Life if it does not drive response. That’s business.”

He noted that Life had struggled to bring in advertisers. "Between Parade and USA Weekend basically fighting it out in the marketplace for their share of dollars going into the genre, Life had a hard time gaining traction.”