But will it Blender?

Via fw comes this article about Blender magazine shutting down.

I'm not exactly shocked - I've had free subscriptions on and off to Blender, Maxim, and the recently departed Stuff, and have noticed that all of them are considerably lighter of late. I've also noticed that I find myself less interested in them.

I think part of it is that I'm getting older - I was in college when Maxim was launched and started thriving. While my lifestyle never exactly mirrored Maxim, it was what I aspired to - crazy social life, getting drunk and going out, hot chicks, ect. Blender isn't much different, except with a focus on making it's hot chick and booze stories music-related. Now that I've been out of college for 6 years, I'm not interested in partying like a college student.

So the generation that grew up on Maxim has moved on, and my guess is that the generation behind them got used to getting lots of their news and pictures of women in bikinis off the 'net (although Maxim did make good bathroom reading).

The other factor is the economic downturn. The author of the article is puzzled by this, since magazines are cheap and a cheap luxury. But magazine companies don't make their money from subscriptions - especially when you've given away as many subscriptions as Maxim/Blender/ect used to (I've had my Maxim sub since 2003, and it's good until ~2011). They make money from ads, and advertisers are cutting back on ads. Many of the categories that Blender/Maxim/ect relied on - ads targeted at young guys with disposable income - cars, personal care items, booze, electronics, cigars - are areas that are hard hit - consider them not so affordable luxuries. Those commpanies are cutting back in advertising, which is hurting revenue. Blender and Maxim haven't just gotten light physically because of fewer articles, but also fewer big fancy glossy ads - ads that used to make them a ton of money.