• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, March 11, 2009

After a string of magazine closures, the consumer magazine industry saw what may be the worst death of 2009 so far on Tuesday--with the news that Bestlife, a promising and still relatively new title from Rodale, has bitten the dust. According to the publisher, it will cease publication after its May issue, which is due out next month. The closing of Bestlife comes a day after American Express Publishing said it would close Travel + Leisure Golf.

At first glance the news is surprising, considering the magazine's mostly strong performance in terms of ad pages and circulation since its debut in 2004. According to the Publishers Information Bureau, ad pages grew 64.2% in 2006, 37.3% in 2007, and 6.6% in 2008. But the title was not immune to the sharp economic downturn that gathered speed in the New Year: according to MIN Online, ad pages tumbled 36.3% in the first three months of 2009 compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, a positive trend in newsstand sales also reversed, with single-copy sales falling 6.7% in the most recent report from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, covering the second half of 2008.

Steven Pleshette Murphy, Rodale's president and CEO, explained: "Despite the great work of the sales team and the talent of the editorial staff, given the challenges of the advertising market and general conditions, Bestlife could not meet our internal benchmarks. We have made the decision to focus our resources on our core brands and capitalize on opportunities across new and emerging media platforms."

It has been a rough couple of years for men's magazines, on the whole: Conde Nast closed Cargo, a young men's shopping magazine, in March 2006; Alpha Media closed Stuff in October 2007; Mass Appeal, a men's fashion magazine for urban hipsters, closed in April 2008; and Conde shuttered Men's Vogue as a stand-alone publication in November 2008.