A magazine that Warhol began in 1969 is shut down

NEW YORK: Almost half a century after it was founded by Andy Warhol, Interview magazine, the arts and culture publication, is folding.

The news was publicly shared by several employees on Twitter on Monday.

Ezra Marcus, an associate editor at the magazine, said by email that the staff was notified in an all-hands meeting earlier in the morning that Interview, which was founded in 1969, was closing and filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Phone calls to Brant Publications Inc, which acquired Interview magazine in 1989, two years after Warhol died, went unanswered.

With its striking style, Interview had long wielded outsize influence in the industry, inspiring the look and feel of many other publications.

But questions about the magazine’s fortunes have lingered for years, as it faced ever-thinning ranks and churned through staff.

As news of the announcement spread, fans of the magazine posted remembrances online, mourning the loss of a onetime bible of the fashion and publishing communities.

Reports of financial mismanagement in recent months had raised questions about the viability of the magazine, which is published by Peter M. Brant, a contemporary art collector.

“We’ve all seen the end coming for a few weeks,” Marcus said in the email, citing an article about a lawsuit against the magazine filed this month by its former editorial director, Fabien Baron.

In the suit, filed in a New York court on May 2, Baron and his wife, Ludivine Poiblanc, sued the magazine and its publishing company, accusing them of owing the pair more than $600,000.

In a lawsuit filed in 2016, Deborah Blasucci, who said she had spent more than three decades with the publisher, accused Brant and the company of illegally firing her.