Weekly Standard, influential conservative magazine, to close

WASHINGTON — The Weekly Standard, the conservative political and cultural magazine, will shut down after its last issue appears Monday, the chief executive of its parent company said Friday.

The Washington, D.C.based magazine’s 35member editorial staff will be laid off as a result, said Ryan McKibben, head of Clarity Media Group, the Colorado company that owns the Standard.

“This was a business decision,” McKibben said. “As we looked at all of our options, we saw we were facing a steady decline in revenues and circulation. That drove us to our decision to close this week. ... It was a tough decision.”

The Standard was founded in 1995 by Bill Kristol, Fred Barnes and John Podhoretz with f unding f rom media mogul Rupert Murdoch.