Inland Empire business newspaper folds

The Business Press, which has been published by the Riverside Press-Enterprise, is being shut down after 16 years. This week is the last edition. The closing is part of a sizable cutback at the P-E. From Publisher Robert Redfern (via Gary Scott):

As with others within our industry, we've had to take severe measures over the past several years in order to adjust our business to the economy and the marketplace changes. We continue to be very uncertain about what will happen with our local economy in this coming year, largely because we've continued to experience revenue challenges. As a result, we're being forced to make further adjustments in our business priorities. Some of these will impact The Business Press, which first published in September 1995 and has been part of our product portfolio for the past 16 years. Unfortunately, because of the economic downturn of the past three years, we've come to a point where we're no longer in a financial position to continue publication.

Business Press Editor Nels Jensen says the PE will expand its biz coverage to make up for the loss. Those sorts of promises are always made, but often fall short - and that would be a shame given the importance of having strong business coverage in an area like the Inland Empire.