After 80 years, Newsweek will be ending their print edition and going all digital. Tina Brown announced that the December 31, 2012 issue of Newsweek will be the last.
Newsweek has been facing downwards print sales for a few years now. According to Wikipedia, there’s been a “drop in worldwide circulation of 4 million in 2003 to just 1.5 million in 2010.”
In a note, co-written with Baba Shetty, CEO of The Newsweek Daily Beast Co, Tina Brown goes on to say, “our business has been increasingly affected by the challenging print advertising environment, while Newsweek’s online and e-reader content has built a rapidly growing audience through the Apple, Kindle, Zinio and Nook stores as well as on The Daily Beast. In our judgment, we have reached a tipping point at which we can most efficiently and effectively reach our readers in all-digital format,” they wrote. “This was not the case just two years ago. It will increasingly be the case in years ahead.”
According to editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast and Newsweek, Tina Brown, Newsweek will be supported by subscriptions and available on e-readers, tablets, and the Web. Select content will also appear on The Daily Beast. The Daily Beast made its debut four years ago and was merged with Newsweek two years later. In that merge, Newsweek even lost their URL; giving The Daily Beast the entire brand. The Daily Beast now attracts more than 15 million monthly visitors — a 70 percent jump from last year, boosted by coverage provided by Newsweek journalists.
They also noted, “Regrettably we anticipate staff reductions and the streamlining of our editorial and business operations both here in the U.S. and internationally.”
“Exiting print is an extremely difficult moment for all of us who love the romance of print and the unique weekly camaraderie of those hectic hours before the close on Friday night,” Brown and Shetty added. “But as we head for the 80th anniversary of Newsweek next year we must sustain the journalism that gives the magazine its purpose — and embrace the all-digital future.”
Weekly news magazines are becoming outdated as you can have news online from anywhere in the world with a click of a button. Newsweek first began publishing in February of 1933 and sold at news stands for only 10 cents.
The Newsweek for iPad app is currently available for free in the Apple App Store.
Newsweek to End Print Edition
Newsweek Magazine will to go to all-digital format in early 2013, editor-in-chief Tina Brown announced Thursday.
Newsweek Shuts Down Print Edition
Jon Friedman discusses the implications of the end of the print edition of Newsweek.
Newsweek Goes Digital
Newsweek goes fully digital.
