Philadelphia Magazine is owned by a company called Metrocorp, which saw a change in management this week when CEO David Lipson handed control to a guy named Nick Fischer while remaining in place as a majority owner and chairman. The significance there is that the Lipson family had been running the show since the 1940s, so this is the first time in seven decades that a Lipson won’t be involved in day-to-day operations.

That probably means very little to you, but here’s a local tidbit courtesy of Jeff Blumenthal at the Philadelphia Business Journal:

Lipson announced the news to staff at Philadelphia Magazine and sister publication Boston Magazine Monday afternoon and held a company-wide Zoom call Tuesday. In an interview, Lipson noted the existing challenges of the media business have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, with advertising and events revenue dissipating.

Metrocorp laid off five employees, put all remaining employees on a furlough schedule of one week per month beginning in April, combined the June/July issue of Boston magazine, moved the Best of Boston to August and canceled the Best of Boston event. It also reduced editorial pages of both magazines through August, as well as its Home and Wedding magazines. In addition, Metrocorp eliminated publicly placed copies of its magazines that are distributed to hotel rooms, waiting rooms of doctor’s offices, hair salons and other locations.

Philly Mag doesn’t do a lot of sports-related stories these days. Sometimes Victor Fiorillo will write about a topic that crosses the sports/culture threshold, like the Q/A with tattooed Eagles fan Rob Dunphy, or the meandering diatribe in which he labeled NFL draft picks “future rapists.” Ernest Owens will also occasionally complain about something, like the Super Bowl parade being an example of white privilege. But Philly Mag abandoned the X’s and O’s side of sports when they shut down the excellent Birds 24/7 blog in 2017 and also decided that they didn’t need the services of Derek Bodner, who is one of the city’s best basketball writers.