Electronics Slowdown Reduces Number of Trade Magazines

A continued slowing trend in the electronics industry during 1986 not only caused employee layoffs and bankruptcies for computer makers but also triggered a wave of closures of the electronics trade magazines that cater to the computer-minded, a Newport Beach communication firm’s survey reports.

According to the Media Survival Study conducted by Mira Communication, 41 magazines specializing in coverage of the computer, electronics and electrical industries folded during the 1986 fiscal year ended Oct. 31.

Company president Thomas K. Mira said he suspects the high casualty rate among electronics publications is due to “a shakeout” within the high-tech industry. “I would imagine that with fewer companies and fewer advertising dollars, there had to be a shakeout in the magazines too,” Mira said.

Mira said he expects the number of trade magazines for the electronics industry--currently there are 184 of them--to decline as long as the industry itself continues in its two-year slowing trend.

Among the notable 1986 casualties of computer magazines were Apple’s Apprentice, Business Software Review and Information Management.

Mira’s agency, which does public relations work and advertising for various companies, surveyed more than 16,000 publications nationwide in the first of what Mira said will be a yearly tabulation of the number of general interest magazines, trade journals and newspapers that go out of business.