Consumer Reports is pulling the plug on its 9-year-old ShopSmart magazine.
The last issue will be the August/September one, as CEO Marta Tellado, who arrived from the Ford Foundation just over a year ago, embarks on an ambitious digital agenda and shakes up the consumer-friendly print operations.
As part of the changes, Diane Salvatore was elevated to editor-in-chief of the flagship Consumer Reports (with 3.6 million subscribers), replacing Ellen Kampinsky, who held the job for the past year.
Last month, Tellado appointed Jason Fox, former head of global product news for Reuters News, as the new vice president for digital Consumer Reports. Tellado continued last week promoting Wendy Bounds, who was heading the company’s video division, to be the new executive director, content. Kevin Winterfield joined Consumer Reports from IBM last week as director of social media.
“As a result of its new digital strategy, Consumer Reports will shift away from smaller print publications, discontinuing ShopSmart magazine and its Money Adviser newsletter but expanding its reach with refreshed and new mobile and Web products and services,” said Tellado in a statement.
Lisa Lee Freeman, the editor-in-chief of ShopSmart, who has been there since it was launched in 2006, said, “We’re still hauling butt right now, trying to get the final issue of the magazine together.”
Like its larger-circulation sibling title, ShopSmart accepted no paid advertising because it did not want its editorial mission to be influenced by advertisers. It relied on newsstand and subscription sales for the bulk of its revenue.
“I’m sad, but I feel we accomplished a lot,” said Freeman. The magazine had 342,000 paid subscribers at $4 per issue, while newsstand consumers had to fork over $5.99 an issue.
The sudden shutdown of ShopSmart has angered the editorial union, News Guild of New York (formerly the Newspaper Guild). Twelve unionized workers and six managers were slated to be laid off as a result of the closing, the Guild was told on Tuesday.
Bill O’Meara, president of the News Guild, claimed that Consumer’s Union, the parent company, is “violating seniority rights and ignoring contract language that bans layoffs of long-term employees.” He vowed that the Guild “will fight back.”
A company spokesman had not returned a call on the labor dispute by press-time.