What does 2008 & JPG Magazine have in common? Neither of them will be around in 2009.  One of the most dearly loved photography magazines will no longer make its way into readers hands, accordingly to 8020 Media.  While I was not completely shocked at their discontinuation of Everywhere Magazine, closing the doors on JPG caught me off guard.

Sad news indeed if it holds true.  Not really believing it, I went to the JPG website.  Having to search around for the news, at the bottom of the page I found a link to the blog, which contained the following:

Today is a particularly sad day for all of us at JPG and 8020 Media.

We’ve spent the last few months trying to make the business behind JPG sustain itself, and we’ve reached the end of the line. We all deeply believe in everything JPG represents, but just weren’t able to raise the money needed to keep JPG alive in these extraordinary economic times. We sought out buyers, spoke with numerous potential investors, and pitched several last-ditch creative efforts, all without success. As a result, jpgmag.com will shut down on Monday, January 5, 2009.

The one thing we’ve been the most proud of: your amazing talent. We feel honored and humbled to have been able to share jpgmag.com with such a dynamic, warm, and wonderful community of nearly 200,000 photographers. The images on the website and in the magazine were adored by many, leaving no doubt that this community created work of the highest caliber. The kindness, generosity, and support shared among members made it a community in the truest sense of the word, and one that we have loved being a part of for these past two years.

We wish we could have found a way to leave the site running for the benefit of the amazing folks who have made JPG what it is, and we have spent sleepless nights trying to figure something out, all to no avail. Some things you may want to do before the site closes:

- Download the PDFs of back issues, outtakes, and photo challenge selections. We’ll always have the memories!
- Make note of your favorite photographers. You may want to flip through your favorites list and jot down names and URLs of some of the people you’d like to stay in touch with. You may even want to cut and paste your contacts page into a personal record.
- Catch up with your fellow members. Our roots are in this humble flickr forum and we recommend going back to find fellow members, discuss the situation, or participate in another great photo community.
- Keep in touch. This has always been much more than just a job to each of us, and we’ll miss you guys! We’ll be checking the account jpgletters@gmail.com in our free time going forward. We can’t promise to reply to every email (since we’ll be busy tuning up our resumes) but we’d love to hear from you.
- Stay posted. Although the magazine is ceasing publication, we’ll be updating you on what’s happening with your subscription early next week.

We’re soggy-eyed messes, but it is what it is. At that, JPGers, we bid you goodbye, and good luck in 2009 and the future.

Laura Brunow Miner
Editor in Chief

Even though there seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel (See the latest post: Glimmer of Hope), nothing is promised for the future of JPG Magazine.Readers, fans, and subscribers were given a 4 day window to check out everything they liked, grab some past issues via PDF and scrounge what they wanted before the plug is officially pulled. Almost equally as sad is the method in which I heard the news: via a local Flickr group.  No message on my JPG account and no email.  With the poor economy, I can certainly understand financial troubles for any company, but to not notify paying customers of such important news is a little…well…unprofessional in my opinion.

Still, if something comes through for the magazine, it will be one of the few worth saving.  Each issue provides volumes of inspiration and it has been fun watching everything grow to where it has.