Industrial Distribution magazine, apparently widely read across the bearing industry if eBearing's email is any indication, has shut down. And then, like many of the companies it covers, apparently restarted after a surprise 11th-hour sale.

The publication's official final issue was November/December 2009. 2011 would have been its 100th year.

Owned by Reed Business Information, the magazine got its start back in 1911 as Mill Supplies. Reed waited until January 6, 2010 to announce ID would be shut down, another victim of the global economic slowdown and declining advertising revenue. 5251R9N7.

An email from ID Editor, Jack Keough, said:

Twenty-five years ago, George Berkwitt, then the editor of Industrial Distribution magazine, told a young editor that the distribution business was the best business to be in.

"If you don't have fun in this business, you'll never have fun in any business," he said.

George was right. For nearly a quarter century I've had the best time of my professional life serving as Editor-in-Chief of Industrial Distribution.

Unfortunately, difficult economic times coupled with rising costs have caused Industrial Distribution to cease publication with its last issue. This is especially difficult news for a publication that was to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2011.

ID's editorial staff has met many of you at conventions, industry events and in your offices. Together we've witnessed the good times and the bad times, and like a good neighbor, ID was there to record those moments in history.

Thank you for your support and friendship over the years. As far as my personal plans go: Let there be no mistake. I'll never be far from distribution.

A few weeks after closing down Industrial Distribution, however, the publication was acquired by Advantage Business Media. It will reportedly restart publication in the near future, although several sources said they believe it will be an online-only publication.

Industrial Distribution's online edition is here:    www.inddist.com