On Tuesday 14 March, the High Court ordered the connections of LM magazine to pay ITN and two of its journalists a total of £375 000 in libel damages. The next day, we received a letter from ITN's lawyers, Biddle, demanding the money. Within a week they had sent another demand, with court order attached.

As a consequence of this, Informinc (LM) Ltd, the company which publishes the magazine, is now having to go into liquidation, cease trading and make its employees redundant. Myself as editor, and Helene Guldberg as co-publisher, also face the threat of personal bankruptcy.

The April 2000 edition of LM will be the last monthly issue. We are trying to raise the finance to publish a Last Magazine in the summer, and go out with all guns blazing.

The LM-initiated Institute of Ideas, a series of events planned to take place from June to July, will go ahead in partnership with major institutions in London, including the British Library, the Royal Institution, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Society of Arts, Tate Modern, and the Union Chapel Project. A new company, the Academy of Ideas, has been set up by Claire Fox to coordinate these events.

We would like to thank all of our subscribers and Friends of LM for their support.

Anybody who can help to finance the Last Magazine should get in touch with Helene Guldberg on (020) 7269 9228.

The LM Online website is now an archive site.

As for the post-LM future of magazine publishing, watch this space

For more information, phone Claire Fox on (020) 7269 9223 or email academy@instituteofideas.com

April 2000 issue

EDITORIAL: The only thing this case has proved 'beyond reasonable doubt' is that English libel law is a disgrace to democracy and a menace to a free press

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