Ascent will close in the spring.

Citing rising postal and paper costs, decreasing financial subsidies and threats to Canadian culture and magazine grants, the publishers of Ascent, a Montreal-based yoga magazine, will cease operations on March 31. The not-for-profit title was published for 10 years.

The magazine's publishers hope to produce one final issue for spring 2009, but since they do not currently have the funding necessary to produce it, they are asking readers for donations, through the magazine's website, with the aim of collecting $18,000 to cover printing costs.

The quarterly magazine began life in 1969 as a newsletter, and then a small journal, based out of Yasodhara Ashram in British Columbia. In 1999, the title relocated to Montreal and was coverted to an international magazine. In 2005, Ascent won the Utne Independent Press Award for Excellence in Spiritual Coverage.