Elle Girl To Transform Into Online Only Magazine

American Media, Inc. is shutting down the operations of four of the magazines it publishes: Celebrity Living, Elle Girl, Shape en Español and the automobile magazine MPH. The company is also moving the operations of long standing supermarket tabloid, The National Enquirer, out of New York City and back Boca Raton, Florida. After about a year of operating in New York while trying to revamp the 'nutty' tabloid image of the Enquirer, the city was too deemed expensive of an environment in which to operate. American Media Chairman and CEO David Pecker gave a statement that "the magazine industry is in a very challenging time for both advertising and circulation." While growing concerns from the companies creditors didn't help, the ultimate culprit is the crowded market that is the nature of the magazine industry. When you do business in a world where dozens of new magazines are launched each year when it is also expected that dozens are expected to fold, you might end up doing some of the folding. But Elle Girl isn't going away as quietly as the others. The company plans to redesign the web site ellegirl.com, and continue to update it with editorial content. Elle Girl, the paper magazine, suffered from the same proliferation and success of the celebrity weeklies as its sister mag Celebrity Living did, but had the luxury of a little more history (started in 2001 as opposed to being launched last year) and having almost three times the circulation (600,000 to 225,000) to warrant the attempt at an second life. A limited life with much less fanfare, but a life. - Elle Girl and Celebrity Living Will Shut Down (New York Times) Buy.com