Newsweek to Cut Print Edition
Newsweek announced Thursday that it will shift to an all-digital format in early 2013 and end its 80-year-old print publication with it's last issue published on Dec. 31.
According to the Associated Press, the print version of Newsweek is the latest major change in a now digital world driven by websites, tablets and smartphones. They also call the new digital world a changing environment where advertisers look for less expensive online alternatives.
The announcement about the end of the print version was made by Tina Brown, editor-in-chief and founder of The Newsweek Daily Beast Co, and Baba Shetty, its CEO.
Brown said job cuts are expected, but did not provide a specific figure. She also said that Newsweek's editorial and print operations would be streamlined both in the U.S. and abroad.
"In our judgment, we have reached a tipping point at which we can most efficiently and effectively reach our readers in all-digital format," Brown and Shetty said on The Daily Beast website.
The decision does not come as a surprise though. Barry Diller, the head of the company that owns Newsweek, announced in July that the publication was re-thinking it functioning as a weekly print magazine since producing it in print form was difficult.
Other news organizations that have eliminated their print versions include US News & World Report and SmartMoney.
As readers have increasingly turned to digital sources for news, Newsweek's print edition has been losing relevancy and has not been doing well for years.
Just two years ago increasing losses prompted The Washington Post Co. to sell Newsweek for $1 to stereo equipment magnate Sidney Harman. Harman died the following year.
Before he died, he placed the news magazine into a joint venture with IAC/InterActiveCorp's The Daily Beast website in an attempt to cut the magazine's losses while also widening its audience online.
Brown and Shetty announced the soon to be all-digital publication will be called Newsweek Global and will be a single, worldwide edition which requires a paid subscription. It will be available on tablets as well as for website reading, with some content available on The Daily Beast website.
"We are transitioning Newsweek, not saying goodbye to it," they wrote.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Why not just scrap the whole damn rag? Someone gave me a subscription to Newsweek this year as a joke, knowing that I am not exactly a flaming liberal. I tried very hard to read the first couple of issues, keeping an open mind, but found that it was just another far-left propaganda publication. So, at least now I won't have that offensive piece of garbage cluttering up my mail box.