IDG to Shutter InfoWorld Print Publication, Keep Web Site

By FOLIO: Staff
03/26/2007

IDG will make an announcement this afternoon that it plans to morph InfoWorld into a Web-only publication. A spokesman said this morning that April 2 will be the last print issue of the magazine. Following that, the publication will be "100 percent online and events" focused. Employees of the San Francisco-based publication were to be informed of the print magazine's demise today and a news release is expected to go out at 2:30 this afternoon, the spokesman said.

Paidcontent.org reported this morning that few layoffs are expected from the closure. The b-to-b publication has long-provided coverage and analysis to help IT professionals evaluate their buying decisions.

Although news of the closure was causing quite the stir in the blogosphere this morning, it's hardly surprising. Numerous consumer publishers including Hachette Filipacchi and Time Inc. have transitioned print publications into online-only properties in the past year. And b-to-b publishers have done the same. Technology publisher CMP has, for more than a year, been quietly transforming itself through print closures, which include the shuttering of IT Architect, Secure Enterprise, Software Development and C/C++ Users Journal, and through the expansion of its IT and event offerings.

For more on the closure, check back with Foliomag.com later this afternoon for an interview with IDG president Bob Carrigan.