Lose Face

The Face, the magazine that was once the epitome of cool, is to close after 24 years. Publishers Emap have decided that the monthly glossy - which was at the cutting edge of popular culture during the 1980s and some of the 1990s - is no longer viable as circulation has dropped from 70,000 copies a month to just 25,000.

The last issue of the Face, which was launched in 1980 and went on to become an icon of fashionable publishing with cover stars such as Kate Moss and David Beckham, will be published on April 8.

Staff on the magazine, including an editorial team of 20 under editor and Popbitch founder Neil Stevenson, had been told that the magazine's future was up for review, but could continue in a different form. Despite suggestions it might continue as a website, it is thought Emap is keen to end its five-year relationship with the title.

The Face was never a mass-market publication, but at its peak it sold over 70,000 issues each month. In the early 1980s, it was de rigeur for anyone in the cool brigade. As well as championing every movement from the new romantics to avant garde artists, it revolutionised magazine publishing.

At the time, the music market was dominated by Melody Maker and New Musical Express, but the Face made style and graphics as important as its journalism. Its founding art director, Neville Brody, became one of the world's most influential graphic designers.