Arthur magazine, the five-year-old neo-music rag found free in the entrances of the city's hipster haunts like Other Music, is dead. The reason? A dispute between the magazine's founding editor, Jay Babcock, and founding publisher Laris Kreslins.

Babcock has been trying to buy out Kreslins for a year. Talks broke down Thursday, and production on the magazine's next issue (which was to have a cover article on Yoko Ono co-written by Thurston Moore) was halted.

Kreslins announced the decision yesterday on the Arthur magazine blog:

As of Friday, Feb. 23rd, Arthur Magazine is on indefinite hiatus. We at Lime Publishing, the current publisher, had been working toward transitioning operations to a new publisher since the start of the year. A breakdown this past week in negotiations for the future of the magazine led to an unfortunate and perplexing announcement that "Arthur is Dead." This poorly-timed message was sent out, against explicit wishes of Lime Publishing, to the public before the staff, advertisers or contributors were notified.

"The magazine can't be restarted," Babcock told the Village Voice. "It's a done deal. It's dead. The situation can't be unfucked."