UPDATE: That was the headline at the ‘Top Stories’ column of the home page of www.semiconductor.net, the online home of monthly trade magazine, Semiconductor International (SI). Parent company Reed Elsevier, the U.S. arm of Reed Business International (RBI), had been divesting or reorganizing its magazine portfolio for over a year and 23 titles including SI have been closed down completely, effective April 30th.
In typical PR wisdom, Reed announced the closures on Friday, the classic day for releasing bad news as this is deemed the lowest profile day for press and the financial community as the weekend looms.
Rumours over the pending demise of SI began to intensify when the remaining ‘electronics’ titles were sold to Canon Communications in February, 2010. Those titles included Electronic Design News, Design News, Test & Measurement World and Packaging Direct.
Penwell’s Solid State Technology (SST) now stands as the only U.S.-based monthly magazine covering semiconductor manufacturing.
UPDATE: There would seem to be a twist in the tail of the closure of magazines such as Semiconductor International based on http://www.foliomag.com/2010/did-reed-ever-really-plan-sell-titles-it-closed">this trade media news from Folio.