Hughes Communications ceases operations, four titles closed.

Hughes Communications (Rockford, IL), the publisher of three trade magazines with a fourth launched win June, has abruptly ceased operations. Owner and chief executive officer Bill Hughes simply told employees not to return to work and said that all operations would cease immediately.

Hughes was established in 1986 with the launch of the consumer title Rockford Magazine. That title was sold to Gannett Co. in 1989 and was closed by Gannett in 1996. Subsequent to that first title, Hughes launched Sales & Marketing Strategies and News, a monthly with a controlled circulation of 40,000, Human Capital, a monthly started in 1999 and produced for 40,000 company executives and HR specialists, President & CEO, a 50,000 controlled circulation published nine times a year and launched in 2000 as President's Strategy News, and Enterprise, a general title for business executives launched with a June issue this year. It was to have been published five times a year.

Unavailable to comment for TBP, Bill Hughes told the Rockford Register Star newspaper that "we went off a cliff." He told the paper that the combination of the recession and the attacks of Sept. 11 were too much to overcome and that advertising continued to decline. The company had a staff of 47, about two-thirds of whom were full time.