• Ad Age, Tuesday, September 5, 2006 11:33 AM

"It would be great if more magazines went out of business in the coming months," writes Scott Donaton of Ad Age. "And more Web sites were shut down, TV shows yanked off the air, newspapers folded and radio programs unplugged." The media landscape, he says, needs to be cleared of some clutter. Cases in point include the closing by Hearst of Weekend and Shop, Etc. magazines, along with Time Inc.'s decision to shut down the Office Pirates Web site. Rather than trashing them for trying the ideas, or for cutting jobs as result of their failure, Donaton says they should be applauded for making the kinds of cold-eyed business decisions that media and marketing companies need to do. He believes there are still too many bad products out there--"ones that clearly aren't working but are being sustained for reasons of vanity."

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