Dow Jones shuts down Smart Money magazine

The financial advice publication owned by Dow Jones will live on in digital form, but closing up the print operation will result in a net loss of 19 jobs (several new positions are being created on the website). Smart Money, which had a circulation of around 800,000, focused on baby boomer executive types. More bad news: Barron's, which also is owned by Dow Jones, eliminated a number of jobs this week, reports Forbes media writer Jeff Bercovici. It's not surprising to see cuts in the financial advice sector - the Internet is flooded with investment information, and even though a lot of it is inaccurate, misleading or fraudulent, it's mostly free. People like free. Here's more from Bercovici on Smart Money:

Two years ago, the News Corp. division doubled down on SmartMoney, buying out the 50% stake held by Hearst Magazines. Dow Jones president Todd Larsen explained the move by saying it allowed for greater integration of SmartMoney with The Wall Street Journal. But Larsen is out as of this week, apparently displaced by the arrival of new CEO Lex Fenwick. And SmartMoney is in worse financial shape than it was in 2010. In the first quarter of this year, its ad pages decreased 23.4%, according to the Publishers Information Bureau.