News start-up The Printed Blog ceases publication

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The Printed Blog , a series of printed newspapers compiled from handpicked blog content, has ceased publication, citing a lack of investment. The company, which launched its first editions in Chicago in January of this year , had expanded its operations to cover New York.

But a lack of outside investment capital has forced The Printed Blog to close, its founder Joshua Karp said in a blog post .

"Despite a significant personal investment on my part, and the additional support of six or seven credit cards, we were unable to raise the minimum amount of money required to reach the next stage of our development. This was a difficult decision for us, but the financial reality of the situation demanded that we suspend further publication immediately, and indefinitely," he wrote.

Sixteen issues were printed, 80,000 print copies distributed and around 100,000 copies downloaded, but according to Karp, The Printed Blog tried to expand too quickly.

"Instead of focusing on one thing - revenue - on a small enough scale to prove our model, I decided to try and publish the paper in Chicago, San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles… I got carried away, and we spread ourselves too thin too fast," he wrote in a follow-up post .

Speaking to Journalism.co.uk at the time of its launch , Karp said the newspaper industry needed new models and new ideas from 'somebody who has the foolishness or the wherewithal to do something else'.

Karp, who was optimistic about reversing the fortunes of the newspaper industry, said that the idea behind the project was to apply online principles to offline publishing.

"I'm disappointed, to be sure, but also looking forward to the future. I believe the next few years will be among the most exciting times in the history of journalism. The industry’s landscape is on the verge of major change, and when redefined, it will look a lot different than it does today. It will also function considerably better," wrote Karp, in the announcement stating that the venture would close.

The 'serial entrepreneur' said he has no fixed plans for his next project, but added that he would enjoy the opportunity to work on transforming traditional media companies into 'a new media powerhouse'.