The monthly Far Eastern Economic ReviewLeading Asian magazine to close
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
By Vaudine England
BBC News, Hong Kong
The monthly Far Eastern Economic Review will be closed in December
One of Asia's leading print publications, the Far Eastern Economic Review, is to be closed in December.
Dow Jones, now owned by News Corporation, had made the once cult-like news weekly into a monthly opinion magazine.
But the company said the continued loss of readers and advertising revenues made its existence unsustainable.
The closure of the magazine, founded in 1946, marks the end of an era for challenging journalism in Asia.
The Far Eastern Economic Review grew from a few black and white pages in the 1940s, into a bulky, weekly, must-read across Asia by the 1980s.
The region's many authoritarian governments took to blacking out pages or banning the magazine outright.
But the Review insisted on independent reporting and chose content over revenue on many occasions.
It prided itself on original journalism, challenging the powers that be, asking the questions many living in Asia either would not or could not ask, and had correspondents in almost every Asian capital.
But by the 1990s it faced new competition, and when Dow Jones took control of the magazine, efforts to introduce more lifestyle features sparked protests from Review loyalists - as did its decision to make it into a monthly rather than a weekly title.
Now the company says it will close completely so it can focus on core markets, expand online content in several languages and strengthen the Wall Street Journal in Asia.
Many of the region's greatest names in reporting made their mark in the pages of the Review - from the legendary Richard Hughes of Korean War fame, to Nate Thayer, the journalist who found Cambodia's Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot.
One of Asia's leading print publications, the Far Eastern Economic Review, is to be closed in December.
Dow Jones, now owned by News Corporation, had made the once cult-like news weekly into a monthly opinion magazine.
But the company said the continued loss of readers and advertising revenues made its existence unsustainable.
The closure of the magazine, founded in 1946, marks the end of an era for challenging journalism in Asia.
The Far Eastern Economic Review grew from a few black and white pages in the 1940s, into a bulky, weekly, must-read across Asia by the 1980s.
The region's many authoritarian governments took to blacking out pages or banning the magazine outright.
But the Review insisted on independent reporting and chose content over revenue on many occasions.
It prided itself on original journalism, challenging the powers that be, asking the questions many living in Asia either would not or could not ask, and had correspondents in almost every Asian capital.
But by the 1990s it faced new competition, and when Dow Jones took control of the magazine, efforts to introduce more lifestyle features sparked protests from Review loyalists - as did its decision to make it into a monthly rather than a weekly title.
Now the company says it will close completely so it can focus on core markets, expand online content in several languages and strengthen the Wall Street Journal in Asia.
Many of the region's greatest names in reporting made their mark in the pages of the Review - from the legendary Richard Hughes of Korean War fame, to Nate Thayer, the journalist who found Cambodia's Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot.
4 comments:
I am very sorry to hear such sad news. It was the magazine that I got to read about my homeland Cambodia in the early 90s, before the mass of www.com
May someone else pick up the legacy and carry it on.
Houston, Texas.
If I won lotto next week 11:56PM!
Hold your breast do not kill yourself just yet!
Create a new one.
sorry to say, but it goes to show nothing last forever and it's got to go sooner or later. we can say the same of things that lack of as well. take cambodia, for example, things are definitely going to be better in cambodid, despite cambodia lacks a lot of things. we will overcome, in other words. god bless cambodia.
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