Sometimes the magic works, sometimes it doesn't: Guardian Monthly folded

Guardian News & Media has told its subscribers that its venture into a monthly magazine is being discontinued. The magazine was launched in fall 2006 and was to have been complementary to the Guardian's stable of other publications -- the daily Guardian, weekly Observer, Guardian Weekly and its various websites. However, publisher Will Ricketts said in the letter to subscribers:

The company is taking a long-term strategic view of its activities and although Guardian Monthly has performed well in a busy and competitive international marketplace, we have decided that this is not the right time to continue with a global magazine offering.

This is not altogether a surprise, since the magazine seemed to be thrashing about looking for a focus. As it was, it was quirky and catholic in its choice of subjects, but it was a miscellany, mixing fashion, hard news and features, recipes, reader-written comment; a grab bag designed to somehow serve a very far flung audience. As the old saying goes when you try to be something for everybody, you wind up being nothing to nobody.