Ticketmaster’s Magazine, Live, Ceasing Publication

Another Los Angeles-based magazine has shuttered, closely following Buzz’s demise in April. Ticketmaster’s Live, a monthly publication focusing on live entertainment, closed Monday. Its last issue will come out next week.

About 40 employees were informed by publisher Carole Ference at a staff meeting Monday that they were out of a job. The monthly was started by Ticketmaster in February 1996 and always lost money; the same problem plagued city/lifestyle magazine Buzz throughout its eight years of existence. Live had reportedly lost about $15 million since its launch, though Ference said in an interview Tuesday that the magazine had been expected to break even by next year.

The closing comes shortly after Ticketmaster was acquired by USA Networks, which is controlled by media mogul Barry Diller. “The magazine was not part of [USA’s] plan going forward,” said Ference.

Ference, the former publisher of House Beautiful who had been with Live from the beginning, acknowledged that the magazine’s closing had been a “possibility” since the process of USA’s acquisition began. A number of Live employees who left during the last six months had not been replaced.

Eight employees will keep their jobs through an arrangement with Time Warner’s magazine group. Time Warner will offer Live’s nearly 500,000 subscribers issues of Entertainment Weekly or Sports Illustrated to fulfill the remainder of their subscriptions; in addition, subscriptions to those two publications placed through Ticketmaster’s phone center will include a monthly entertainment listings supplement. About half a dozen regional editions will be produced through the arrangement, which Ference described as “long-term.”

Live staffers were given until the end of the week to clear out of their offices. According to insiders, most employees were given two weeks’ severance pay per year of service.