Talk magazine folds in midst of floundering economy

NEW YORK (AP) -- Talk magazine, the glossy monthly that struggled to turn a profit, has become the latest publication to fall victim to the dismal economic climate.

Tina Brown, the former New Yorker editor who founded Talk, said Friday that the magazine is shutting down, less than three years after its highly publicized launch. Talk's February issue will be its last.

"It cannot be anything but sad for all of us," Brown said in a statement. "Unfortunately we had to be realistic about the fact that 2001 and 2002 to date represent the worst period in memory for general interest magazines."

Talk had the backing of two media giants -- Miramax Films and Hearst Corp. -- when it was introduced in 1999 amid much fanfare.

Despite an overall downturn in magazine advertising, Talk actually registered a 6 percent gain in advertising pages in 2001 compared to the year before. The magazine also had a strong circulation of 651,000.

But the floundering economy, which has already forced the closure this year of Homestyle magazine, led Talk's backers to reconsider how long it would take to make Talk turn a profit.