NEW YORK (AP) - Newsweek plans to end its print publication after 80 years
and will shift to an all-digital format aimed at online users starting in early
2013. Job cuts are expected.
Newsweek's last U.S. print edition will be its Dec. 31
issue.
With more and more consumers on the go and using their
cell phones and tablets to receive the news, media organizations have had to
increasingly shift more of their emphasis online.
SmartMoney, for example, announced in June that it was
shuttering its print publication in favor of a digital format. Dow Jones &
Co., a unit of News Corp., said at the time that 25 positions at SmartMoney
would be eliminated.
Newsweek's decision does not come as a complete surprise.
Barry Diller, the head of the company that owns Newsweek, announced in July that
the publication was examining its future as a weekly print magazine. Diller said
then that producing a weekly news magazine in print form wasn't easy.
The announcement of the change was made by Tina Brown,
editor-in-chief and founder of The Newsweek Daily Beast Co., on The Daily Beast
website Thursday.
"In our judgment, we have reached a tipping point at which
we can most efficiently and effectively reach our readers in all-digital
format," she said.
Brown said staff cuts are expected, but didn't give a
specific figure. She also said that Newsweek's editorial and print operations
would be streamlined in the U.S. and abroad.
Brown said that the online publication will be called
Newsweek Global and will be a single, worldwide edition that requires a paid
subscription. It will be available for tablets and online reading, with certain
content available on The Daily Beast website.
"We are transitioning Newsweek, not saying goodbye to it,"
she said.
