Forgive my current obsession with Tobacco Reporter magazine, but I seem to have played a small part in eliciting a statement from the company that owns the title.
To recap: the December issue, published this week, is the last edition of a magazine whose lineage goes back 150 years.
I wrote about it here (Stubbed out - world’s oldest tobacco trade magazine to close) and on Thursday night I posted the link on LinkedIn, adding the words:
Not sure they’ve thought this through. In a hostile media environment, the closure of Tobacco Reporter means the tobacco industry is set to lose a valuable communication tool.
Late last night, having already posted a reply to my post, the CEO of the TMA (which owns the magazine) posted this statement, also on LinkedIn:
I won’t comment further. I’m posting it here merely for your information. (Click here for the original pdf which is easier to read.)
Interestingly, however, and according the final issue of Tobacco Reporter, the US-based TMA, founded in 1915 as the Tobacco Merchants Association, will shortly operate under a new name.
Even the cursory nod to ‘tobacco’ in TMA will disappear, with the company henceforth to be known as the Nicotine Resource Consortium.
How very 21st century!!