McClatchy to shutter celebrity magazines In Touch, Life & Style
The newsstands at supermarket checkout lanes might soon start looking sparser, or at least different, as mainstay gossip and celebrity magazines In Touch Weekly and Life & Style are set to shut down in late June.
Their parent company, McClatchy, announced Friday that the two magazines, which helped define celebrity tabloid culture in the 2000s, are getting axed along with two other titles and their respective staffs.
“Despite the best efforts of many of our talented colleagues, we have been unable to develop a profitable business model for four of our magazine titles. First for Women, In Touch, Life & Style and Closer will publish their final editions between June 20 and 27,” McClatchy spokeswoman Julie Pendley said in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter. “We are grateful for the meaningful contributions of the affected employees and are providing support during the transition.”
It’s unclear how many workers will be affected.
The magazines join several entertainment outlets that have scaled back or shuttered their operations in recent years, including Entertainment Weekly, Gawker and OK! Magazine.
In Touch, started in 2002, advertised itself as “the magazine for the celebrity obsessed reader,” reporting an audience of more than 3.2 million.
The tabloid was among the first to unearth a scandal involving Josh Duggar, the oldest son featured in the TLC reality show “19 Kids and Counting.” In Touch reported that, according to a police report, the reality show star had allegedly molested multiple young girls – later revealed by Duggar’s parents to include four of his sisters and a babysitter – as a teenager. The report, made nearly a decade earlier, detailed the claims with the names of the minors involved redacted, and In Touch obtained the report through a Freedom of Information Act request and confirmed that Duggar was the suspect. Hours after the In Touch story published with a copy of the police report attached, Duggar apologized and resigned from his position at a conservative lobbying organization. The next day, TLC stopped airing “19 Kids and Counting.”
Duggar was later arrested and convicted of receiving and possessing child pornography in 2021.
In Touch Weekly’s sister publication Life & Style has promoted itself as “the perfect intersection of Celebrity News and Hollywood style” with its emphasis on fashion and beauty finds, Hollywood trends and lifestyle tips. It boasted a total reach of over 7.6 million consumers when accounting for print circulation, digital users and social media followers.
In Touch and Life & Style are part of A360 Media, the publisher formerly known as American Media Inc. that used to own the National Enquirer and the National Examiner. Last year, A360 Media merged with McClatchy, which is one of the largest news publishers in the country.