Individual Investor to Cease Publication

Individual Investor magazine is being shut down and its mailing list acquired by rival Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.

Kiplinger’s, the nation’s first magazine to cover personal finance issues, said Monday it will pay $3.5 million for Individual Investor’s subscriber list and will assume $2.6 million in debt.

Kiplinger’s will add Individual Investor’s 430,000-subscriber base to its own list, which is currently about 1 million. Kiplinger’s was founded in 1947.

Like other financial magazines, the 13-year-old Individual Investor has been suffering from a slump in ad sales amid the stock market’s downturn over the last year.

The New York-based magazine’s ad pages were down 30% through May compared with a year earlier, while Kiplinger’s were off 10%.

Individual Investor was founded by Jonathan Steinberg, son of Saul Steinberg, whose Reliance Group insurance firm recently filed for bankruptcy.

While its magazine is shutting down, the parent Individual Investor Group (IIGP) will continue to put out newsletters and two Web sites. The firm’s shares fell 3 cents to 25 cents on the OTC Bulletin Board on Monday.