Publisher loses fight to keep BRW in print FAIRFAX Media has axed the print edition of its Business Review Weekly after 32 years, despite internal arguments the masthead should be saved. Sources said that publisher Amanda Gome had made a strong business case for the title to go down to 15 issues a year, comprising 11 monthly magazines and four special quarterly editions featuring its popular annual lists, which include the Rich List and the Young Rich. However, the company's top executives, who are being advised by consulting firm Bain & Co, ruled against the plan. The last print edition of BRW will appear on November 28, but the masthead will continue online, and will no longer be behind a paywall. Some popular annual lists will be published in Fairfax's The Australian Financial Review and possibly also The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Staff were told of the magazine's closure at noon yesterday, informed Fairfax had increased the number of jobs it wanted to cut from its Business Media unit from 25 to 30. The company will also seek 20 job cuts from the News Media and Life Media units in its latest voluntary redundancy scheme, which opens on Monday. Ms Gome, who joined Fairfax a year ago to oversee BRW and some other business titles, is expected to leave the company after the final print edition. Yesterday's news followed the company announcement last week it would close newspaper-inserted glossies the (Sydney) magazine and the (Melbourne) magazine and make Capital magazine a section in The AFR. BRW, launched during a business boom in 1981 by commentator Robert Gottliebsen, hit its peak print sales of about 80,000 copies a week in 1988, but in June this year was selling just below 34,000. Print circulation was also cannibalised by the launch of its website, which since starting in February has grown its audience from 80,000 unique browsers a month to 280,000, and sends out 40,000 email newsletters. "That had a bit of an impact, but generally people are buying less print magazines," Ms Gome said. But . . . the work we've done has really meant its survival as an ongoing brand. We're in a cost environment where a weekly magazine was a big ask.