TOUGH advertising conditions have been blamed for the failure of a business magazine after nine years.

Kent Business World, founded by a Medway-based publisher, has ceased publication. Its sister publication Business Woman's World has also folded.

Kent Business World's pages have reflected the activities and importance of business to the local economy since March 1993. Medway-based publisher Carole Franks, founder of Orchid Publishing, blamed a tough advertising market for the closure.

She told readers and advertisers that it was a much-loved publication but "the current commercial reality is that there will not be sufficient advertising revenue in the market place to sustain it".