Nielsen Co. has shuttered weekly radio and recording industry newspaper Radio & Records, a company spokesperson confirmed this morning.

A report about the pub's closure written by R&R Washington bureau chief Jeffrey Yorke was picked up by a few publications, including The Hollywood Reporter, which is also owned by Nielsen.

According to Yorke's account, publisher Howard Appelbaum called a "Town Hall Meeting" for R&R staff across the country, where he "told employees that it was a 'tough decision' but that the magazine's 'macro did not work' in this economic climate." Yorke reported that all jobs had been eliminated and that some of R&R's coverage would be moved over to Nielsen-owned Billboard. (Update: Billboard will run the radio airplay charts that R&R used to publish, but none of the editorial that the pub would have covered.)

Nielsen spokesperson Gary Holmes told FishbowlNY that less than 30 jobs had been eliminated. Those positions are "scattered around the country" with a majority in Los Angeles. R&R's current issue is the pub's last, Holmes said.

Today, a statement on R&R's Web site read: "We'd like to thank you for supporting R&R, and hope that you will continue to follow the brand through Billboard." Visitors to the site are then redirected to Billboard's site.

And in times of trouble, even rivals band together. R&R competitor RBR posted a tribute to the 36-year old pub yesterday. Jack Messmer, RBR's executive editor said:

"As a former Washington Bureau Chief of R&R, it is sad to see it come to an end. Bob Wilson built the publication, aimed primarily at radio programmers, on the integrity of its airplay charts. That made him one of the good guys in Fredric Dannen's book "Hit Men," which explored the payola scandals of the 1980s...A lot of dedicated broadcasters worked at R&R over the years. After all, almost everyone who worked there had been in radio before they began writing about radio. Lon Helton, Walt “Baby” Love, Joel Denver, Ron Rodrigues, Gail Mitchell, Barry O'Brien and Pat Clawson, just to name a few of the people I had the privilege of working with. Like me, they’re all long gone from R&R, as is Bob Wilson.

It was a good run. Here’s hoping that better days will return for the radio industry, even though R&R will no longer be a part of it."

If you were among those let go from R&R, send us an email or leave a comment below. As a fellow cast off from a shuttered trade pub, our hearts go out to you.

Update: We hear that contact info for unemployed R&R staffers can be found at All Access.