Uncertainty reigns in the printed news media, but one thing is certain: a lot of people have lost a lot of money by betting on newspapers and magazines. Ingenious Media Active Capital, a fund managed by Ingenious Media, has written off at least £10 million on its investment in B2B magazine publisher Incisive Media, making the value of its stake close to zero. Telegraph.co.uk reported the loss earlier this week and a senior source from Incisive confirmed to us the investment had been written down, but added that Ingenious has not walked away from its investment and it remains a minor shareholder: the write-down reflects an updated mark-to-market valuation of the company’s stake. The investment’s value could also rise if and when the company sees an upturn in fortunes. Ingenious Media declined to comment.

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Incisive remains profitable and has some big and durable brands like Accountancy Age and Legal Week but it admits to having a financing problem and in February admitted its profits-to-debt ratio had dropped below an agreed level on a loan took out in 2006 as part of its takeover by Apax Partners. We understand talks are on-going with Incisive’s lenders and that both sides are in the latter stages of securing a re-financing deal. As well as its magazines, Incisive publishes a raft of companion sites as well as Theinquirer.net, VNUNet.com and Clickz.com.