A billion-pound fortune has proved insufficient to prop up The Ecologist and it is to cease print publication – becoming in the process the third magazine in a week to close or abandon its paper edition.

The Ecologist, owned by the Goldsmith family, will be published online only from August, as the green movement’s flagship title struggles to stem annual losses that were running at £250,000 before the downturn struck.

Maxim, the men’s monthly published by Dennis Publishing, said last week that it would abandon its print edition to become online only. On Tuesday, Press Gazette, the specialist title for journalists, was closed entirely by Wilmington, its owner.

Although The Ecologist’s decision was, according to a spokesman for the family, “under consideration for the past 2½ years, long before the banks went belly up”, the print shutdown was prompted by “rising costs and diminishing returns” as paper costs increase and advertising falls.

Founded 39 years ago by Teddy Goldsmith, brother of the late Sir James Goldsmith, the corporate raider, and now under the control of Zac, Sir James’s son, The Ecologist debated in its first issue whether population control would be necessary to ensure Britain’s survival. Today, priced at £3.50 on the newsstand, each issue sells about 20,000 copies.

Online-only publishing is seen by many in the magazine industry as a prelude to closure of a publication, because the revenues generated from paper advertising usually exceed those that can be achieved digitally. Income from cover price sales also vanishes.

However, a title with a specialist, web-savvy audience, such asThe Ecologist, has a greater chance of maintaining its profile. Printed on what Richard Coles, the publisher, described as “100 per cent postconsumer waste paper” with vegetable inks and transported to North America by ship, the title can claim that now it is reducing its environmental impact further by abandoning printing completely.

“We believe that the decision will be welcomed by our readers, who demand the highest possible environmental standards,” Mr Coles said.

Magazine advertising is expected to fall by about 7 per cent this year, after tumbling 10 per cent during 2008 to £1.58 billion, according to data compiled by the Advertising Association. Typically, advertising accounts for a quarter of magazine revenues, although the exact proportion varies considerably from title to title.

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