Well, the death of print marches on. Shoujo Beat, Shonen Jump's more demure sister magazine, is seeing the effects of the digital era. Once again, the otaku sphere of magazines available shrinks, with Newtype USA, PiQ, and Anime Insider having preceded the now dying Shoujo Beat.

The magazine will be ceasing publication after the July 2009 edition, according to what we've heard. We're waiting on official word from Viz, but from everything that's popped up, word is all the Shoujo Beat subscribers will be comped with issues of Shonen Jump for the remainder of their subscription period.

Gia brings together a few discussions going on from twitter and the rest of the Internet, wondering why they'd pawn shonen titles off to a distinctly shoujo audience. Considering the crossover that people have with their genre preferences, and the blanket appeal of Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece, Shonen Jump's big 3 titles, it makes sense that they might be able to bolster their SJ numbers with some converts. Shonen Jump has always been leaps and bounds stronger than Shoujo Beat, but it doesn't hurt to try and keep their numbers padded a bit.

It's sad to see Shoujo Beat go -- I had always been a (closet) fan of the magazine. It was just, well, all the tween-targeted makeup ads that were a bit of a turnoff for me. You may as well hold onto these collector's items, though: they're chock-full of hot Dale North action that you can get autographed at Anime Expo!

[Update: hit the jump to see the official response by Viz to Japanator. Short story: They are calling it quits. -- Dale]