Editorial: So long to Life

Time Inc. announced this week it is forever closing Life magazine, a publication that revolutionized the way in which photographs were used in covering news.

Life was launched as a weekly publication in 1936 and quickly became known for its large , splashy cover photographs of presidents, movie stars and sports stars along with images of America's emerging trends and traditions. From skateboards and changing hemlines to wars and politics, the magazine brought America to life each week.

Dwindling profits - brought about, in part, by the immediacy of television's pictures and that medium's popularity - closed Life in 1972. The magazine was resurrected six years later as a monthly, which shut down in 2000. In 2004 Time Inc. revived Life as a weekly newspaper supplement, with imagery and stories focused mostly on celebrities and household tips. But the new format didn't catch on, and the final issue is to be published April 20.

Life will make its enormous stockpile of photographs available online for people to download for free. So even in dying, Life could end up being one of the best resources on the Internet for 20th-century images.

The Internet, which derives most of its news from television and conventional newspapers, provides Americans with seemingly limitless access to life's images. Our lives have become fodder for a worldwide show-and-tell on such sites as MySpace.com and YouTube.com. Most likely, too many of us figured we just didn't need the magazine anymore. And, as they say, that's life.

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