Business Notes

Slap. Slap. Slap. With the finality of the sound of the last magazines hitting the floor at night just before the lights go out, upstart publications are falling victim to hard times. In the past few weeks four notable consumer magazines have folded, mostly because of a slump in advertising sales. Egg, which premiered last February a week before the death of doting founder Malcolm Forbes, dimmed along with the trendy bicoastal night life it chronicled. And publisher Steven Greenberg closed Fame, which had covered celebrities for two years.

Two of the unhappy quartet hope to publish again. Business Week suspended Assets, its magazine of personal finance and life-style, after two issues, promising to revive it when the economy improves. Wigwag, which took a small- town view of life in America, flourished editorially but announced it had to take a pause as it searched for new investors.

Even established magazines have felt the need for a boost. Hearst Corp. decided to shake up House Beautiful, Redbook and Connoisseur by appointing new editors. The most notable shift will be at Connoisseur, where editor in chief Thomas Hoving, former head of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, will be replaced by Gael Love, who edited Fame.