After an attempt in September of last year to stay relevant in the changing media landscape, The Boston Phoenix is shuttering for good. Executive editor Peter Kadzis, who has been with the pub for 25 years, said in a press release, “It was the decline of national advertising dollars over the years that made the Boston Phoenix economically unviable.”

The alt-weekly’s publisher, Phoenix Media, will continue to publish Portland Phoenix and Providence Phoenix, as those publications do not rely on national advertising to stay afloat. “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,” said Kadzis.

Publisher Stephen Mindich announced the news in a staff memo – read it at Romenesko.

In a move to stay relevant in the changing media landscape, The Boston Phoenix will merge with its sister publication, Stuff, today. The new pub, called The Phoenix, will combine The Boston Phoenix’s news content with Stuff’s coverage of lifestyle topics. The newspaper has suffered in recent years due to classifieds moving to the Web, and hopes that the new format will attract more advertisers. Editor-at-large Peter Kadzis told The Boston Globe that though the paper does not have a readership problem, “a sizable number of style-related advertisers—fashion and high-end liquor, for example—prefer glossy pages.” Read more