MAM
International media trade magazine World Screen shuts after 40 years
The veteran trade publication covering the international television business closes its doors, ending four decades of industry coverage
NEW YORK: World Screen, one of the longest-running trade publications in the international television business, has ceased publishing after 40 years, its president and publisher Ricardo Guise announced on Wednesday.
No buyer, no pivot, no second act. Just a full stop.
The New York-based title, which built its reputation chronicling the global business of programme sales and, latterly, the streaming revolution, published its final edition this week. In a farewell note, Guise offered thanks to advertisers, readers and partners but gave no explanation for the closure, citing only the conclusion of “publishing activities.”
The company will not wind down immediately. It will continue operating through a transition period to collect outstanding invoices and process refunds for prepaid long-term online campaigns, a sign that the closure was not entirely without complications.
World Screen had carved out a distinctive niche, covering the buying and selling of television content across borders at a time when the business grew from a cottage industry of tape-trading into a multi-billion-dollar global marketplace. It tracked every twist: the rise of the format business, the cable boom, the advent of on-demand platforms and the streaming wars that have since reshaped everything.
Forty years is a long run in trade media. That it ends with a quiet note from the publisher rather than a fanfare says much about the brutal economics now battering specialist publishing, even in an industry awash with content and cash.
“Thank you for being part of the World Screen story,” Guise wrote. For many in the international television business, it was rather the other way around.
