Meredith Dumps 'ReadyMade' Creative Team

It's a bad time to be an independent magazine (as these guys can attest), but it's not a much better time to be a formerly independent magazine that's now part of a big conglomerate.

As part of a wave of cutbacks last week, Meredith Corp. announced that ReadyMade, a quirky shelter/do-it-yourself title it acquired two years ago, will be moving from Berkeley, where it's been based since its 2001 launch, to Des Moines, where Meredith is headquartered.

What it didn't say was that the editorial staff won't be coming along from the ride -- and, judging from the abrupt way their server access was yanked, they weren't all necessarily given the option, either. Here's an email editor in chief Shoshana Berger -- who founded ReadyMade with partner Grace Hawthorne -- sent out yesterday.

From: "shoshana berger"
Date: January 12, 2009 6:33:31 PM EST
To: [redacted]
Subject: new era, new email

With a heavy heart, I'm writing to let you know that ReadyMade magazine is being moved to Meredith's Corp's headquarters in Des Moines, IA. Neither I nor my creative team are moving with it.

Please reply with your full contact information and use the email below for any future correspondence. Sorry for the bother, but my contact list is on a corporate server to which I'm no longer allowed access.

[email address redacted]

More soon,
Shoshana