The “Greetings” at the top of the form letter must have been as welcome to those who may have cut their teeth reading about iconic environmentalist researcher Lester Brown and his “State of the World” annual reports as it was to those many fewer still wedded to the Worldwatch Institute’s in-print Worldwatch magazine.

The organization’s communications manager, Julia Tier, notified subscribers and others who follow Worldwatch Institute (from which Lester Brown stepped aside in 2000 before forming the separate Earth Policy Institute) that the magazine is ceasing publication with its July/August 2010 issue. It’s a victim of “the unique challenges that subscription-based print publications face in the current economic and media climate” and of “financial constraints,” she said.

Long a stalwart and trusted source of environmental information, and of particular value to many journalists and environmentalists who grew up in former Soviet-bloc eastern European countries, the magazine in recent years seems to have lost some of its panache, and not solely because of the loss of the legendary, charismatic, and always-quotable Brown.

Tier invited interested parties to subscript to the group’s newsletters, follow its four blogs, and continue looking for other publications, including the “State of the World” report. For more information, visit the Worldwatch Institute’s website.