Best Life Magazine Ceases Publication

EMMAUS, PA AND NEW YORK, NY—Best Life, the men’s lifestyle offshoot of Men’s Health, is closing up shop after its next issue.

“Despite the great work of the sales team and the talent of the editorial staff, given the challenges of the advertising market and general conditions, Best Life could not meet our internal benchmarks, and we have made the decision to focus our resources on our core brands,” said Steven Pleshette Murphy, CEO of Rodale Inc., which publishes Best Life and Men’s Health. “Both VP/Editor-in-Chief Stephen Perrine and VP/Publisher Michael Wolfe have been outstanding leaders and ambassadors for the brand, and we are so proud of the work of the Best Life team.”

Best Life, which has a circulation of more than 500,000, started as a newsstand quarterly in 2004 and is currently published 10 times a year.

Men’s Vogue, which was cut by rival publisher Conde Nast in October, had a circulation of about 370,000.

Best Life had been growing, in both ads and readership. According to various sources, the magazine’s advertising had been steadily growing—up about 6.5 percent last year. But then the ads dropped more than 30 percent in the first quarter of this year.

The Best Life website will close, too, and the company is reportedly trying to reassign some of the magazine and website’s staff of about 40.