Newsweek is dropping print.
After 80 years in print, the news weekly magazine will move to an all-digital format starting in January 2013. Its final print edition will be its Dec. 31 issue.
Tina Brown, the editor-in-chief of
The Daily Beast and
Newsweek, announced the news this morning on
TheDailyBeast.com. The story was co-authored by Baba Shetty, the newly appointed CEO of the company.
“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 wrote. “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.”
Newsweek will become
Newsweek Global, which “will be supported by paid subscription and will be available through e-readers for both tablet and the Web, with select content available on
The Daily Beast.”
Brown and Shetty also said they anticipate “staff reductions.”
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Last year,
Newsweek merged with the website
The Daily Beast. The magazine is on pace to lose its owners up to $22 million this year, according to a report in
Bloomberg Businessweek. The report also highlighted
Newsweek’s hemorrhaging subscriptions. They have dropped to about 1.5 million from roughly 4 million a decade ago.
Recently,
Newsweek has drawn attention—and criticism—for its sensational covers. Twitter users responded to a September cover announcing Muslim Rage by
hijacking the hashtag created around the topic.
The news of
Newsweek going digital lit up Twitter and quickly became a trending topic. Among the more memorable tweets about the news:
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