Macworld is closing its doors. Parent company IDG has laid off much of its staff, including longtime employee and Editorial Director Jason Snell.
First published in 1984, Macworld has played a historic role in covering Apple since its early days. The publication is most famous for spawning the Macworld Expo, a trade show where Steve Jobs announced multiple products, including the iPhone. Apple hasn’t held an event at Macworld Expo since 2008.
Cult of Mac has exclusive recollections by the magazine’s founder Dave Bunnell, which chronicle the journalist’s close encounters with a young and volatile Steve Jobs, the Mac’s difficult gestation and the birth of modern desktop computing.
In a statement on his personal site, Snell explains how leadership changes and budget cuts led to him parting ways with IDG, the company that also publishes TechHive and PCWorld.
Last December, after several corporate leadership changes, and with budget cuts looming on the horizon, I decided I couldn’t go on. My newest set of bosses persuaded me to stay give them a chance. So I continued to work and ponder my next move.
Then another leadership shift occurred, the sixth in 24 months. The new bosses were actually my old bosses, and they knew exactly how I was feeling about my job and the prospect of going through more painful changes. To their great credit, they allowed us to end our relationship amicably. I thank them for their support and their generosity. They even asked me to write a final front-of-the-book column in the November issue of Macworld.
While it’s currently unclear exactly how many people IDG has laid off, Snell confirms that “many of my colleagues lost their jobs today.”
Macworld’s website will continue running “with a reduced editorial staff,” according to current Editor Dan Miller, who is assisting with the transition before he also leaves in a month.
We’ve reached out to confirm when the last issue of Macworld will come out and what the discontinuing of the magazine means for Macworld Expo.
The timing of the layoffs happens to fall the day after Apple’s iPhone 6/Watch keynote. Macworld had several writers, including Snell, at the event liveblogging.
