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With persistent rumors about top newspapers shifting toward nonprofit models, the "beg your readers for cash" plan is working for at least one smaller outlet.

A week ago, Paste, a music magazine, began asking its readers for donations. The Associated Press reports that "Editor-in-chief Josh Jackson said Thursday the suburban Atlanta-based monthly has raised $166,000 in donations. The magazine focusing on music, film and culture is struggling after a sharp decline in advertising revenue."

In an interview with Media Life, Jackson explained that the magazine has been able to drum up support by offering exclusive bonus tracks donated by artists like the Indigo Girls, Robyn Hitchcock, and The Decemberists.

Donald Trump's magazine, the cleverly-titled Trump, has folded after two anonymous years of poor sales. Did anyone reading this know that there was a Trump magazine?

Apparently this was the Donald's third run at having a magazine and each time it's been a cash-burning machine, perhaps because people who are intelligent enough to be literate don't buy into his tower of hot air. Gawker reports that "Trump Magazine was launched in late 2007 as a joint venture by the Trump brand and Ocean Drive Media Group (now Niche Media Holdings LLC), targeting affluent readers in major U.S. markets. The quarterly magazine saw early success, cashing in on the booming advertising market for yachts and other high-end commodities."

Playboy Enterprises (NYSE: PLA) reported another bad quarter yesterday, as Steven Mallas reported. It's no secret that Playboy is struggling because of changing demographics and the economy, but the post-earnings release conference call included another bombshell: The monthly magazine that was founded in 1953 may not be monthly for much longer.

The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that "Playboy magazine, which has a guaranteed circulation of 2.6 million, this summer will combine its July and August issues to save money on printing and distribution, a move it says could be a precursor to a permanent curtailing of frequency."

People revealed earlier this week that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner made its closely-watched list of the 50 Most Beautiful People.

Beautiful? Really? 50 Most Beautiful Treasury Secretaries perhaps -- but only because Hank Paulson looks like a rodent and Robert Rubin looks like the dad in that Twister Sister music video. Business Insider found time to do some digging and uncover the makings of a scandal. Joe Weisenthal reports:

It's a sad day for business journalism. Conde Nast announced that it is shuttering Portfolio, the glossy monthly business magazine launched two years ago and the accompanying web site, effective immediately.

What's so sad about this is that the magazine's failure appears to be a direct result of the soft economy and weak ad spending. For my money, Portfolio was the best business magazine going -- infinitely better than Fortune and Forbes.

Ad pages have been falling throughout the magazine publishing industry, and titles have been shut down at a breakneck pace this year, with newspapers not far behind. Some titles seem immune to the problem; or, at the very least, the lesser of many evilly-immense decreases. Scientific American, as a unit of book publishing juggernaut Macmillan, was one of those at only an 18.1% ad page decline in 2009's first quarter. And the title, 164 years old, has weathered many storms in the industry; it's as solid as an oak.

Yesterday, news of a reorganization had industry onlookers worried that a few employees would be let go. By the end of the day, media watchers were shocked as Editor-in-Chief John Rennie, who's held that role for 15 years, and at least 20 other employees were laid off.

Yesterday, I blogged about the catastrophic decline in advertising in the nation's newspapers and now Publisher's Information Bureau reports that the magazine industry is facing a similarly bleak situation. It's not surprising given that the key drivers behind declines -- a shift toward the internet by readers and weak consumer spending leading companies to cut back on overall ad spending -- are the same.

For the first quarter, magazine ad pages were down 25.9% over the prior year quarter. U.S. News & World Report, plunged almost 69% and Wired was down 57.2%. Boating, Sporting News, Boating Life, Sport Fishing, Power & Motoryacht, and Power Cruising were all down over 50%.

With circulation declining in large part due to the huge amount of free content available on the internet, some magazine publishers are adopting what seems like a counter-intuitive approach to competing: raising prices.

Magazines like Time, Newsweek, Business Week and even the upmarket New Yorker have long relied on low subscription prices to attract large numbers of subscribers, which in turn attracts advertisers. But the New York Times reports that The Economist has raised its price substantially of late and is still continuing to buck the trend of declining circulation. That has other publishers taking notice, and many are planning to increase their subscription and newsstand rates, after years of falling prices.

Time Inc. is planning the launch of an experimental customizable magazine called "mine."

The Associated Press reports that "The magazine is free, but the print edition is limited to the first 31,000 respondents, while an online version is available for another 200,000." Here's how it works: You pick five titles from a list of Time, Sports Illustrated, Food & Wine, Real Simple, Money, In Style, Golf, and Travel + Leisure. Then "mine" editors decide which stories from each will make it into your customized magazine.

With so many magazines folding, this might seem like a strange time to go ahead and start three new ones.

Especially when you have an enormous debt load that is rated as junk by Standard & Poor's and Moody's. But Reader's Digest is launching three new magazines. Back in January I wrote about the launch of Pastor Rick Warren's new magazine, and now Reader's Digest is adding another two to the line-up.

Fresh Home debuted on Monday with 300,000 copies and a focus on lower-end decorating ideas for women and families. The idea is apparently that Ikea-based decorating ideas will be more recession-friendly than Veranda but in truth there hasn't been a shortage of budget decorating magazines in a long time. Add in the recent collapses of Country Home and Domino and it's hard to see any good omens for this one. Best You is a health magazine and will debut next month.

Tomorrow morning before the bell, The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO) will have its chance to impress Wall Street when it reports its fourth quarter numbers.

Going into tomorrow's announcement, analysts are expecting the company to show earnings on the quarter of $8.17 per share. Should the company hit this estimate, it would be a decline of 16.5% from its reported $9.79 during its fourth quarter 2007.

I'm guessing that sin isn't in, as far as this recession is concerned. Playboy Enterprises (NYSE: PLA) posted a larger fourth-quarter loss thanks to $157.2 million in restructuring costs and other one-time costs. In addition, weaker-than-expected revenue cut into the quarterly performance. PLA's net loss checked in at a sizable $4.37 per share, far larger than the loss of three cents per share a year ago. This most-recent loss rounds out a year when PLA posted a loss in each quarter. PLA's revenue fell to $69.8 million from $85.9 million a year ago, and it fell well short of the expected revenue of $73.7 million.

CNBC's Jim Cramer has an audience of 600,000 for his Mad Money. But Barron's has gone to great lengths to investigate how his stock picks have performed and it has concluded that they lag the market averages by about five percentage points. Specifically, Barron's concluded that from May to December of 2008, the S&P 500 lost about 30% and "heeding Cramer's Buys and Sells would have added another five percentage points to that loss."

Cramer's Sells do better than his Buys. Specifically, his Sells outperformed the market on the downside by five percentage points while his Buys lost up to 10 percentage points more than the market. One finance professor estimated using options-market activity that betting against Cramer's Buy recommendations can yield 25% in a month.

In a previous post about the medium I call "periodicals printed on paper," I wrote that the universe of magazines and newspapers was being winnowed, and only the very best would survive. As my mind's eye darted around a mental image of a newsstand, a few periodicals stood out as "best"; Martha Stewart Living chief among them. MSL has not just created a loyal following and niche audience; it is a symbol of an entire subset of the population, an aspirational icon who is, while not exactly an ordinary person herself, creates a mostly achievable lifestyle. Her magazine will always represent the soul of the DIY culture; not for nothing do people say of any well-executed craft, especially one involving vintage pieces found at a thrift store, "that's so Martha!"

Conde Nast is ditching Domino, the "style magazine that focuses on life at home." The magazine was launched in April of 2005, and CEO Charles H. Townsend said that the decision to abandon the projects was driven "entirely" by the economy.

The magazine's editor told The New York Times that "We tried to create a marriage between the beautiful image magazines and the useful service magazines. Editorially, we did what we set out to do, and in this economy, sadly, that's not enough."

The magazine was burning cash as its ad revenue declined with the housing industry.