In brief: Mammoth Boeing freighter completes first flight

EVERETT – Boeing Co.’s giant 747-8 freighter – the biggest plane the company has ever built – successfully completed its first flight Monday, a year later than originally planned.

The huge plane took off from Everett’s Paine Field at 12:39 p.m. after a weather delay. It returned at 4:18 p.m.

Hundreds of employees and other airplane fans gathered to watch the plane take to the air. The flight came just one day short of the 41st anniversary of the first flight of the original 747 model.

At 250 feet long – more than twice the length of the Wright Brothers’ first flight – the plane is about 18 feet longer than the existing 747-400 jumbo jet. The company conducted taxi tests on the freighter Saturday, with the aircraft performing well, Boeing said.

Boeing also is developing a passenger version of the plane. It lists 76 orders for the freighter and 32 for the 747-8 passenger jet, with the vast majority from international customers.

The company says the jets will be much quieter, more fuel efficient and have lower emissions than current 747-400 models.

Decline in magazine sales not as sharp as year’s first half

NEW YORK – Purchases of U.S. magazines at newsstands and other retail outlets fell 9 percent in the second half of 2009, a slight improvement from the 12 percent year-over-year decline in the first half of the year.

Those figures released Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations show how the weak economy continues to batter the magazine industry at a time when consumers have plenty of free reading alternatives available online.

Newsstand and other single-copy retail sales are important for publishers because they charge more per copy than they do for subscriptions, which fell 1.1 percent in last year’s second half. Magazines have been enduring one of the worst advertising slumps in memory. The number of ad pages sold by U.S. magazines tumbled nearly 26 percent last year from 2008 levels, according to the Publishers Information Bureau.

Dow closes below 10,000 for first time in 3 months

NEW YORK – The Dow Jones industrial average closed below 10,000 for the first time in three months Monday on nagging concerns about debt loads in Europe.

The Dow, down almost 104 points, had its 10th triple-digit move in 16 trading days. Shares of big banks pulled the market lower, extending a slump that led to four straight weekly losses.

Still, the Dow is up 51.3 percent since last March.