Parent company Reed Business Information cites the recession and slashed advertising budgets as the reasons for the closure.

The last edition of Contract Journal will be published on November 25.

"Like the construction industry it serves, Contract Journal has been hit by an unprecedented recession which has cut advertising volumes by over 50 per cent. CJ is not the market leader and has made significant losses this year. The market shows no sign of recovery and is forecasted not to do so until 2011 at the earliest; the market isn?t large enough to support two weekly construction magazines," said Mark Kelsey, CEO of RBI UK, in the email to staff.

The closure is not a huge surprise - free circulation magazines like CJ and Building Design have been under pressure since the recruitment advertising market collapsed a year ago, and while BD has made moves to convert its readers into paying subscribers, CJ had not.

At the last CIMCIG Conference, speaker Andy Cassie of CIB Communications had speculated on the likely closure of some magazines in the recession. This closure will increase speculation that further closures will follow.

More on this on the CIMCIG website - www.cimcig.org