After 36 years, tomorrow's edition of Radio & Records will be the very last. The weekly trade newspaper's owner, Nielsen, made the announcement to staffers yesterday.
We learned of the news this morning via radio-info.com. That site's Tom Taylor reports staffers were informed of the news during a "town hall" meeting with top management at about 1:00pm. Within a few hours, the paper's website was all but gone -- only displaying a notice reading as follows:
We’d like to thank you for supporting R&R, and hope that you will continue to follow the brand through Billboard. You will be redirected to Billboard.biz in 30 seconds or click the link below.
Between editorial and sales personnel, Taylor estimates about 40 people will lose their jobs at R&R. The parent company will still keep track of radio airplay data, with some of the information being absorbed into the Billboard brand.
The weekly publication most recently made industry-wide headlines last month, when it announced it would be dropping 17 Clear Channel owned stations from its music reporting panels, due to the stations sharing music programming. Syracuse's Y94FM (WYYY) was among about a half-dozen AC stations reportedly using music logs created at New York City's WLTW.