Stop the Presses: Newsweek Losing Print Edition

Newsweek is dropping its print edition and going all-digital starting next year, a move that will usher in a new era for the venerable weekly magazine and result in staff cuts.

The 80-year-old publication has made its reputation covering current events but had been suffering with lagging circulation for years. It will publish its final print edition on Dec. 31 and move to an all-digital format early next year, its parent company said on Thursday.

The all-digital publication will be called Newsweek Global and will be a single, worldwide edition, according to a post on the Daily Beast website.

It will be subscription-based and available on e-readers for both tablet and the Internet, with some content available on the Daily Beast website, Tina Brown, editor in chief of Newsweek Daily Beast, and Baba Shetty, chief executive, said in their post.

"In our judgment, we have reached a tipping point at which we can most efficiently and effectively reach our readers in all-digital format. This was not the case just two years ago. It will increasingly be the case in the years ahead," they said.

Brown said the company anticipates layoffs, with media news service Poynter tweeting that staff will gather at 11 a.m. to learn more about the company's direction.

The new publication, she said, will be "a single, worldwide edition targeted for a highly mobile, opinion-leading audience who want to learn about world events in a sophisticated context."

http://www.cnbc.com/id/49460402

Aint nothing bad in going all-digital. So far, The Economist and Financial Times have been successful at it but the problem with Newsweek might just the fact that news are allover the place, FREE (Blogs, Search engines, Twitter and so on). Hence, subscribers may be reluctant to part with some bucks.

My grouse with these all-digital thingy is the lay-offs.
_{Part of the ills of extreme capitalism}



Frawzey