NEWSWEEK MAGAZINE IS to end its print edition at the end of December and move solely online.
The move comes less than two years after the 79-year-old current affairs magazine merged with the Daily Beast website in 2010, signalling an increased focus on digital as sales declined.
The new digital publication will be called Newsweek Global and will be released weekly for tablet and Kindle readers. The last print edition of the magazine will be published on 31 December.
In an announcement on the Daily Beast website today, editor-in-chief Tina Brown said that the new online-only publication will be targeted at a highly mobile opinion-leading audience who want to learn about world events.
The new publication aims to build up an audience of subscribers in order to make money. Some of the content will also be available on the Daily Beast website.
Newsweek had become increasingly sensationalist since it was taken over by editor Tina Brown as part of the merger in a bid to attract and retain readers.
Brown said that Newsweek had been increasingly affected by the challenging print advertising environment.
“We are transitioning Newsweek, not saying goodbye to it,” she wrote. “This decision is not about the quality of the brand or the journalism – that is as powerful as ever. It is about the challenging economics of print publishing and distribution”.
A number of jobs will be lost as Newsweek becomes online only but the number has not yet been confirmed.
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