Transworld Surf Waves Goodbye To Print

After a ride of nearly 15 years, Transworld Surf magazine appears to have come to a closeout. The staff is now reportedly working on the final issue of the magazine. At a meeting this morning (June 25, 2013)  in Transworld’s Carlsbad, California offices, it was reportedly announced to the staff that the print magazine would be shutting down, however, the website would continue under the leadership of Justin Cote and  Zander Morton.

This news come just one month after it was announced that GrindMedia/Source Interlink had purchased Transworld Media from the Bonnier Corporation. When that transaction was announced GrindMedia Senior Vice President and Group Publisher Norb Garrett said on May 20, 2013 suggested that there were no plans to cut any Transworld brands or employees. How quickly things change.

In an interview posted on the GrindMedia owned Transworld Business Garrett explained the decision:

The first question everybody in the industry asked us was “can you do three surf mags?” That was a question we needed to answer first before we did anything else. While we could have on day one just closed TW Surf, which would have made a lot of sense to a lot of people, I really felt that we owed the brand and the market an opportunity for us to understand more about how the brand fit into the space. That was information we couldn’t get until after we had the brand and could have the conversations with advertisers, people in the industry, and even people outside the industry. Over the last month we spent a lot of time asking that question and the answer we came up with was no.

Garrett said that a few of the staff will be offered other opportunities in the company, and a few employees will be cut. No other title cutbacks were announced in the meetings held June 25, 2013 according to the story, but it seems likely in this changing media environment that more evolution will take place in the coming months. For the rest of Garrett’s interview click the link.

[Link: Transworld Business]