The magazine business is always tough, but now is a particularly challenging time. Yesterday, two friends of mine, James Burnett and Pat Mitchell, got the ax as editor-in-chief and design director of Boston magazine.

(Actually, the Herald’s piece gets the story more right than does the Globe’s, above.)

James was an intern at George when I was an editor there, and Pat was the designer of 02138 (which, some of you may remember, was a terrific-looking magazine).

They’re both extremely talented guys, and I wish them (and the other people who got canned yesterday) the best of luck. It isn’t easy being a journalist these days.