After almost 80 years in print, Newsweek is the world’s most widely read magazine to go completely online.
The cover of the final print issue, dated December 31, is a shot of what was its Manhattan office building, with a Twitter hash tag, across the front in red.
The internationally circulated magazine, which competed ferociously with Time as a record of week’s top stories, will in future be known as Newsweek Global.
The content of both newsweeklies has diverged substantially since they had to adapt to changing reader habits and a drop in advertising revenues for print publications.
Since 2005, Newsweek’s circulation has dropped by about half to 1.5 million and advertising pages plunged more than 80%, while the magazine’s annual losses had lately reached roughly US$40 million.
Digital transition
Founded in 1933 by a former Time foreign editor, Thomas JC Martyn, Newsweek closely followed the format of its longer established and better-known rival.
It remained as underdog after its purchase by the Washington Post Co until the internet accelerated a downward spiral.
In 2010, it was sold for US$1 to Sidney Harman, an audio-equipment tycoon who later merged the magazine with IAC’s The Daily Beast.
The Daily Beast is controlled by Barry Diller’s IAC/Interactive Corporation and in the past year has grown 36% to five million unique visitors per month.
Under the editorship of Tina Brown, a former editor of the New Yorker (1992-98) and Vanity Fair (1984-92), Newsweek became known for provocative covers, such as the one imagining what Princess Diana would look like at age 50.
It is not the first time a US-based newsweekly has gone digital.
In 2008, US News & World Report went online and remains profitable with 180 staff, according to its editor, Brian Kelly.
Partly thanks to its popular US college rankings, its website draws about 5.9 million visitors a month.
Time’s print edition, meanwhile, has around 3.3 million subscribers worldwide.
Nevil Gibson is editor-in-chief of The National Business Review based in Auckland. The above appeared recently as a part of his weekly ‘Insight’. He is a member on the Panel of the Judges of the Indian Newslink Indian Business Awards.
