By Kevin McCauley
Newsweek’s last print edition will be Dec. 31, two years after the Washington Post Co. sold the news weekly to Harman International and then merged with Tina Brown’s Daily Beast.
Barry Diller’s IAC took full control of the Newsweek/Daily Beast combo in July, which triggered the countdown to the demise of Newsweek’s print edition.
The all-digital Newsweek Global will be a “a single, worldwide edition targeted for a highly mobile, opinion-leading audience who want to learn about world events in a sophisticated context,” according to a message posted today on the Daily Beast site by editor-in-chief Brown and Baba Shetty, CEO of Newsweek Daily Beast Co.
NG will be available to paid subscribers and available via the web and tablet with some content from The Daily Beast.
Brown and Shetty called the shift to digital a transition rather than a farewell to the 79-year-old publication.
“We remain committed to Newsweek and to the journalism that it represents. 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,” they wrote.
There will be staff cutbacks are in the works as editorial and business functions are streamlined. |