Today in Bad Publishing News: 'Absolute' Folds
Absolute magazine — the recently launched lifestyle mag for people much, much wealthier than you are or will ever be — folded today, editor-in-chief Andrew Essex confirmed to Gawker. Twenty-six staffers, about half of them editorial, are out of work, including Essex. The move comes as a shock; we hear the mag's owners paid an office visit only two weeks ago and expressed nothing but confidence and support.
When Absolute launched a little less than a year ago, we pronounced it a much better version of its catering-to-the-stinkin'-rich competitor, Gotham: "[B]etter articles, better art, better design, a more tastefully refined sensibility, and definitely a better reading experience for the refreshing absence of Jason Binn photos on nearly every page." We're told work is done on the anniversary issue, but now it's unclear whether it will see the light of the newsstand. (Do rich people even go to newsstands? Aha!)
