The London Magazine, one of the oldest publications in the world, is threatened with closure amid claims that the Arts Council of England is to withdraw its funding.
The magazine's editor, Sebastian Barker, claims he was told on February 9 by an officer from the Arts Council that the annual subsidy was to be terminated from the beginning of the next financial year, this April.
Mr Barker, who has edited the publication for the last five years, claims this could herald the end of the prestigious magazine, launched in 1732 under the title Gentleman's Monthly Intelligencer.
The subsidy is understood to be worth £30,650 per year.
"I was visited and told this with no warning - that the plug was to be pulled and that my job and magazine would be going," he said. "Considering we are in our 275th year, that would be a tragedy."
However, an arts council spokeswoman said that while the funding of the magazine may be withdrawn, it will only be from March next year because of the way the government allocates funding in a three-yearly cycle.
"There must have been a misunderstanding because the grant in aid will end next March and funding should be secure for this year," she said. "But we have visited the magazine to warn them that the future may be difficult and I can understand why they may be concerned.
"We have been open with all our regularly funded organisations that it is going to be a difficult spending review and we could be looking at a very difficult settlement."
The publication became a popular title with the Romantic poets such as John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley, who contributed to the title.
Today, it is a designated arts publication costing £6.95 and published six times a year in 128-page book form, and reaches an estimated 5,000 regular readers of its reviews and poetry.
The decision to potentially pull the funding from the London Magazine is understood to be part of an overall policy decision from the Arts Council to withdraw all direct funding of specialist literary publications.
The London Magazine would be the largest and most prestigious title to have its funding cut, but others under threat are thought to include poetry magazine Acumen and general literary magazine Dreamcatcher.
However, the title is not expected to go without a fight.
A petition signed by more than 50 leading arts figures, thought to include broadcaster Melvyn Bragg and the novelist and critic DJ Taylor, has been sent to the Times Literary Supplement and is expected to be published this Thursday.
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