The AMA's biweekly medical industry news magazine has a circulation of 208,000, per BPA Worldwide, and despite a highly-qualified audience—about 90 percent of its recipients are doctors, they say—the group failed to overcome losses in print advertising.
Thomas J. Easley, senior vice president and publisher of periodic publications for the AMA, calls the magazine's ad-driven model "not sustainable," saying AM News operated at a loss in each of the last 10 years.
"The business model for AM News was limiting," he says. "[It] was entirely reliant on advertising, and predominantly print advertising. The other products in our portfolio have a healthier blend between print and digital on the advertising side, and more importantly, JAMA [the Journal of the American Medical Association] and the JAMA Network have subscriptions and site licensing."
