Duluth-Superior Magazine shuts down production

Duluth-Superior Magazine, a lifestyle publication founded in 2008, has shut down operations, according to owner Marti Buscaglia.
She cited difficulties in running the magazine from her home in Anchorage, Alaska, where she moved two years ago to take a job with the Anchorage Daily News as vice president of advertising.
“It worked for two years, but a small business needs to be run by its owner,” she said. “If I had the money to invest in it, I would keep it going. But I don’t have the cash to float it for the next couple of months to get it back to what it was.”
The magazine employed seven people and used the work of several freelancers.
“For me, that’s a devastating thing,” Buscaglia said. “Some of them have been with us from the beginning. It was a very tough decision. I just
wasn’t sure it was feasible anymore in a community the size of Duluth.”
Circulation for the publication has hovered at about 10,000, Buscaglia said.
She started the magazine because she saw a missing piece in the regional market, she said. Duluth had a magazine for women and Lake Superior Magazine, she said, but nothing that focused on lifestyles.
“I felt it was an untapped niche,” she said. “We started the magazine seven years ago when Duluth had an inferiority complex. I think things have changed a lot. I don’t think the magazine is responsible, but I think the magazine is a part of that.”
Buscaglia was publisher of the Duluth News Tribune from 2002 to 2007. When she moved to Alaska in 2012, she named David Hileman, a former general manager of KQDS-TV (Fox 21), as the publisher. On Wednesday, she said Patty McNulty had been recently filling that role.
Editor Wendy Webb said she was sorry to see the publication close.
 “We appreciate everyone supporting the magazine over the years,” she said.
Staff writer Alysee Shelton contributed to this report.