NEW: Boston Phoenix's Closing Won't Affect Providence Publication

NEW: Boston Phoenix's Closing Won't Affect Providence Publication

The Providence Phoenix will not be affected by today’s news that its sister paper in Boston is closing its doors.

In a press release issued by Phoenix Media, publisher Stephen M. Mindich announced that the Boston Phoenix will publish its last print edition on March 15 and will shutter for good upon completion of its March 22nd online edition.

“The Portland Phoenix in Maine and the Providence Phoenix in Rhode Island will be unaffected,” Mindich said. “They will continue weekly publication.”

GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST

PM/CG Executive Editor Peter Kadzis, explained that the paper’s recent switch to a magazine format led to its demise.

“Our recent switch to a magazine format met with applause from readers and local advertisers,” he said. “Not so -- with a few exceptions -- national advertisers. It was the long-term decline of national advertising dollars that made the Boston Phoenix economically unviable.”

Kadzis said the issue was strictly one unique to the company’s Boston publication.

"Providence and Portland, however, don’t suffer from that problem,” he said. “The local advertising market is sufficient to support those publications. You can see why Warren Buffett favors small market papers over their big city brothers and sisters.”