The end is near for yet another tech-focused, new economy magazine done in by one of the worst advertising droughts in decades. This time, the victim is Ziff Davis Smart Business, a magazine devoted to tech strategies and business.

Its parent, technology publisher Ziff Davis Media, said June would be the last issue of the title, but that it would live on as a Web site and newsletter.

According to a memo to staffers from Ziff Davis CEO Robert Callahan, which was posted on MediaNews, the title will be relaunched as a newsletter in September.

"We believe the brand will transition successfully and profitably to these platforms," the memo said.

Although the mission of Smart Business was to bridge the worlds of business and technology, "(i)n one of the worst ad climates in history, advertisers did not embrace the publication's positioning as enthusiastically as we had hoped."

The Smart Business team was also fighting an uphill battle in breaking through two of the hardest-hit categories in the advertising market of new economy and technology titles, the memo said.

"In the first quarter alone, new economy books lost 67 percent of their ad pages, traditional business publications were down 45.9 percent and tech trades declined 38 percent."

The title joins former new economy titles such as Industry Standard and Business 2.0 that have either called it quits or repositioned in conjunction with other titles.

The news came as the New York-based Ziff, which also publishes Yahoo! Internet Life, CIO Insight and PC Magazine, released first quarter results that provided even more context about the decision to shutter Smart Business.

Total revenues for the quarter ending March 31 were $48.4 million, down 40 percent from the $80.6 million it took in the same time a year ago.

"The decrease was primarily due to a 37.7 percent decline in advertising pages, resulting from discontinued publications and the effects of a weak advertising market, along with decreased royalty revenue related to the termination of an Internet content licensing agreement," the company said.

Overall, Ziff's net loss was $14.6 million, over 51 percent narrower than the net loss of $29.9 million during the same time a year ago. Ziff also said its production costs were $1.5 million for the quarter compared to $3.3 million for the same prior year period, a sign of the company's shift from print-only tech titles to more Internet-based publishing. The numbers were logged before the cost of producing newer titles such as CIO Insight started to add up on the company's ledger.

In the memo, Callahan looked for and essentially found sunny spots amid the clouds hanging over the company's horizon.

In this tough environment, we are doing better than most, reporting positive cash earnings, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization costs, of $5.1 million for the quarter compared to $10.9 million of EBITDA for the same period last year, the memo said.

"While off from last year along with the rest of Corporate America, our results are ahead of both plan and projections."

Revenues from Ziff's developing business segment, including its Internet-related publications, were $5.7 million for the period, compared to $3.6 million last year.

The earnings results and memo also addressed a restructuring Ziff is undergoing in order to reduce its debt service.

The restructuring package with its majority shareholder Willis Stein & Partners III includes an $80 million cash infusion and a write-down on $250 million worth of debt. The deal would reduce the value of its 12 percent senior subordinated notes by $155 million, or just over 60 percent.

"We are proceeding full steam ahead in reaching an agreement with both our bondholders and banks. As part of the restructuring process, we have initiated discussions with our bank lenders and have completed the early stages of negotiations with this group to put a comprehensive long-term amendment in place."

The memo said the company anticipates formally launching the bondholder Exchange Offer in mid June.

But as a result of its operating and financial restructuring, Ziff also said it expects a pre-tax restructuring charge in the range of $15 million to $20 million during the second quarter.