Reed Business Information has announced the closure of its award-winning magazine for care professionals Commmunity Care with 11 jobs at risk of redundancy.
The publisher said that four new posts are going to be created as Community Care becomes an online-only brand.
Explaining the reasons for the closure of the 32,000 circulation weekly magazine, publishing director Trevor Parker said: “The upheaval in the public sector has seen advertisers question the value of print advertising, print recruitment revenues falling by 86 per cent in the last five years, while online revenues have grown.
“As a result we have taken the difficult decision to close the print magazine and focus all our energy and resources on supporting social care professionals online, and through our successful live events and conferences.
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‘The key to the future of Community Care will be the utilisation of new technologies, allowing it to deliver new services to users, and engaging them more directly with the information provided to them.”
RBI said it plans to continue to invest in the online decision support tool Community Care Inform and in events such as Community Care Live.
In statement to readers, Community Care said: “The impressive growth of the communitycare.co.uk online audience to over 300,000 monthly unique users shows that social care professionals are increasingly going online to find information to support them at work.
“The website offers a wide range of resources, including the latest sector news, practical guidance, professional networking in Carespace, and the very best social care jobs. The job site carries up to 3,000 social care jobs each week, making it the biggest and best specialist jobs marketplace in the UK, with even more exciting developments planned.”
The last issue of the print magazine will be on 24 November. Bronagh Miskelly is to leave her job as group editor and Ruth Smith, currently head of content, is to be promoted to editor.
Community Care had average sale of 32,568 in the first six months of this year with just under 4,000 of that total paid-for, with the rest comprising free circulation.
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