Editor's Exit Dooms 'Golf for Women'

This is everything you need to know about the print publishing environment circa mid-2008: It's easier to shut down a magazine with dozens of employees than to hire one new one.

Condé Nast Publications (the parent of Portfolio) said this afternoon that it's ceasing publication of Golf for Women, a 20-year-old, bimonthly title, which it has owned since 2001. "[W]e feel the magazine will not support our long term business objectives," said CEO Chuck Townsend by way of explanation.

But Condé's decision came only after Golf for Women's editor in chief, Susan Reed, notified her bosses that she was leaving to become editor in chief of O, The Oprah Magazine, a Hearst title. "Upon learning of Reed's departure, Condé executives considered replacing her, but instead decided to fold the magazine entirely," reports WWD.

It's going to be that kind of summer, I suspect. Only last week, Hearst made its own ritual offering to the angry ad page gods, sacrificing Quick & Simple.