Newsweek, which has been in publication for nearly 80 years, is adopting an all-digital format. In 2010, the publication merged with online publication The Daily Beast, and now the combined company has decided the print business is no longer needed.
It won’t be all TheDailyBeast.com. Tablet apps will remain a major part of the strategy, as well as a premium web version of the publication.
Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Beast and Newsweek, Tina Brown, made the announcement in an article on the site this morning. She writes:
Newsweek Global, as the all-digital publication will be named, 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. Newsweek Global will be supported by paid subscription and will be available through e-readers for both tablet and the Web, with select content available on The Daily Beast.
Four years ago we launched The Daily Beast. Two years later, we merged our business with the iconic Newsweek magazine—which The Washington Post Company had sold to Dr. Sidney Harman. Since the merger, both The Daily Beast and Newsweek have continued to post and publish distinctive journalism and have demonstrated explosive online growth in the process. The Daily Beast now attracts more than 15 million unique visitors a month, a 70 percent increase in the past year alone—a healthy portion of this traffic generated each week by Newsweek’s strong original journalism.
Brown admits that the business has been increasingly affected by the “challenging print advertising environment”.
The transition to all digital will happen early next year. The last print edition in the U.S. will be the December 31 issue. Newsweek will celebrate its 80th anniversary next year.