Newsweek to end print edition after 80 years

Associated Press

NEW YORK

Newsweek will end its print publication after 80 years and shift to an all-digital format in early 2013.

Its last U.S. print edition will be its Dec. 31 issue. The paper version of Newsweek is the latest casualty of a changing world where readers get more of their information from websites, tablets and smartphones. It’s also an environment in which advertisers are looking for less-expensive alternatives online.

Newsweeklies have been in an especially tough spot at a time when people don’t want to wait a week to read commentary and news digests of big stories, given a flood of instant content available online.

The announcement of the change was made Thursday by Tina Brown, editor-in-chief and founder of The Newsweek Daily Beast Co, and Baba Shetty, its CEO. Job cuts are expected.

“In our judgment, we have reached a tipping point at which we can most efficiently and effectively reach our readers in all-digital format,” Brown and Shetty said on The Daily Beast website.

Newsweek’s decision does not come as a 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.

Brown said staff cuts at Newsweek are expected but didn’t give a specific figure.