Western Journal of Medicine May Fold, Officials Say

The ailing 99-year-old Western Journal of Medicine may close unless an outside publisher can be found, said officials of the California Medical Assn.

The journal is one of the few peer-review publications focused on front-line clinical practices instead of biochemistry or basic scientific research.

“We’re doing everything we can to keep it alive,” said its editor, Dr. Linda Clever.

The association recently warned its 36,000 members that mounting deficits threaten to kill the monthly magazine, which first appeared in 1897 as California Medicine.

The association blamed the deficits on increasing postage and printing costs coupled with a drought in pharmaceutical ads.

Until recently, the journal was given free to dues-paying California Medical Assn. members and distributed to out-of-state medical societies for a nominal charge.

To offset the deficit, the association began selling subscriptions to doctors for $35 a year. But the drive has netted only 1,270 subscribers, far short of the goal of 9,500 by May 30. That makes it difficult to find a publisher.

Dr. Jack Lewin, executive vice president of the association, said the group has had to subsidize the publication to the tune of $500,000 a year.

The current plan is to make the journal self-supporting by July 1 or cease publication, officials said.

The journal’s woes are increasingly common among state and regional medical societies that publish their own journals, said George D. Lundberg, editor of the Chicago-based Journal of the American Medical Assn.