The American Medical Association, the country's largest professional organization for physicians, is shutting down the news magazine it has published for 55 years.
The publication, which also operates a website at AmedNews.com, has a print circulation of about 230,000 but has had trouble turning a profit over the last decade, amid declining ad revenue from drug companies, increased competition from other news sources and a steady migration of readers to the Internet.
“Over the last 10 years, AM News has been unable to generate an operating surplus. We've analyzed the situation exhaustively and do not foresee the trend improving,” said Thomas Easley, the association's senior vice president and publisher of periodic publications, in a statement. “Despite the editorial excellence AM News consistently provides, it is not immune to the changes in the market, and we reached a point where we cannot continue down a path that is not sustainable from a business perspective.”
American Medical News will stop publication on Sept. 9, according to the statement. Its website also is shutting down, but the content will be available until the end of the year. The shutdown will affect 20 employees.