Nielsen shuts down 'Editor & Publisher' and 'Kirkus Reviews'

Nielsen Business Media announced on Thursday it will shut down two venerable trade magazines: Editor & Publisher, which has covered the newspaper industry since the turn of the 20th century, and Kirkus Reviews, the 76-year-old trade publication for the book industry.

The move completes a long-rumored sale of eight Nielsen media brands, including Hollywood Reporter, Adweek, and Billboard, to e5 Global Media Holdings, a new joint venture between Pluribus Capital Management and Guggenheim Partners.

The two magazines' closures caps a particularly grim year for newspapers and magazines. The loss of Kirkus, best known for its pre-publication book reviews (and, notoriously, for its write-ups' negative tone) is another sign of the continued erosion of book coverage in traditional media.

Nielsen Business Media President Greg Farrar's memo about the sale and magazine shutdowns follows.