March is Red Herring's Last Issue

Red Herring magazine is the latest victim of the “new economy” magazine bust that followed the tech boom of the late 1990s.

The magazine’s parent company, RHC Media Inc., has decided to shut down the technology/venture investing monthly after it failed to find a buyer, an employee of the company confirmed.

The March issue, which is on newsstands, will be the last, the source said. All the staff of 31 will be out of jobs as of Monday.

The decision would end a 10-year run for the publication, which, like other shuttered new economy titles Industry Standard and Upside, saw ad pages balloon in the tech bubble and implode in the selloff starting in 2000.

One press report said that in 2000, the magazine sold 3,357 ad pages and that by 2002, the number had shrunk to 404.

The employee said the publication had retained media investment firm DeSilva & Phillips to help it shop the publication to possible buyers.

One publication that had been interested, the source said, is The Daily Deal, which also covers venture investing and finance. Soon after mulling a possible purchase, The Deal broke the the story about the publication being on the block. Advertisers balked.

Employees of the company said they felt that if advertisers had not seen the stories about the publication being for sale, it might have been able to continue publishing while looking for a buyer.

All of the assets are still for sale, the source said, such as the subscription list, and leases on offices in New York and San Francisco.