In light of the financial crisis and plummeting advertising revenues, between 20 and 40 magazines are predicted to shut down in Russia, gipp.ru reported Friday.

The assumption is based on trends seen across the printing industry that indicate declining production of publications and feature not only magazines, but newspapers and books as well. The data was obtained by studying nine months out of 2007 and a part of 2008, revealing that the total growth of the printing industry amounts to 1.6 percent since last year.

According to Mikhail Seslavinskiy, the head of the national print-oriented association Rospechat, the situation “does not scare anyone.” He said that nearly half of the population does not read, but that the situation could be reversed if print titles could be complemented by Internet-based outgrowths, gipp.ru reported.

However, Djahan Pollieva, an aid to Russian President Drimtiy Medvedev, suggested that conflict between digital and print, such as books, does not exist. She also said that if interest in reading drops, interest in the language would also begin to decline, according to gipp.ru.