February 28, 2006 -- (WhatTheyThink.com Exclusive - by Cary Sherburne, Senior WTT Editor) In an unexpected move, parent company Pennwell Corp. is eliminating the printed edition of Electronic Publishing. The last issue will be March, which coincides with the end of the company's fiscal year. According to Editor Keith Hevenor, "It has obviously been a tough time over the past couple of years for print trade publications. While we had continued to maintain our market share, the potential advertising pool has decreased with the ongoing consolidation in the industry. Electronic Publishing has found good success with webcasts and e-newsletters, and the economics are more favorable on digital distribution. We plan to continue with those vehicles as well as other special projects." Hevenor will continue to act as Editor of Electronic Publishing. He is also the conference chair for Converting Machinery/Materials (CMM), a property Pennwell acquired last summer, a biannual event next scheduled for June 2007 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, Rosemont IL. Hevenor said, "I will continue to develop additional content around the CMM brand. It is likely to consist of e-newsletters and Web site content to support the show. We are still in the planning stages, and while I wouldn't rule out a printed component, there will definitely be newsletters and webcasts in the next couple of months for CMM." Hevenor points out that not only consolidation, but increased demands on marketing budgets and more options for marketing spend have affected the print trade advertising pool. He says, "Companies that used to spend a lot on advertising are now spreading it among advertising, direct mail, their own events, trade shows and more. Results for print advertising are harder to measure than many of these alternatives. The old days of advertisers measuring success by how many responses they get to print ads is gone. People just go direct to Web sites for more information, and it is hard to track where the interest comes from." Hevenor declined to comment on revenue specifics for the printed versus electronic components of Electronic Publishing or to speculate on the financial impact of discontinuing the printed magazine. He did remark that he did not see this move as a reflection on the overall health of the printing industry, but stated, "If there are fewer publications, perhaps it makes it easier for those left to survive, Most of the print publications have maintained market share but the number of pages has dropped because the market has shrunk. Even if you maintain your share, if there is less to pay the bills, it makes it harder to run a profitable operation. Where this goes depends a lot on the continued consolidation trends in our industry." Founded in 1976 by industry veteran Frank Romano as Typeworld, Electronic Publishing was in its 30th year.