Newsweek and Daily Beast Editor in Chief Tina Brown announced today that the venerable magazine will cease print publication at the end of 2012, moving to an all-digital, partially-subscription model. Brown made the official announcement (I’m not sure if this is ironic or just telling) on the Daily Beast blog.
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.
This is not exactly a shocking development. Print news magazine subscriptions in general have been falling for some time, and as Brown acknowledges in her announcement, the advertising model has become “challenging.” It certainly doesn’t help that the quality of the magazine has been heading southward at the same time. Whether the Newsweek Global paywall will work remains to be seen; the model hasn’t seemed to work terribly well for other news organizations, but as Brown notes, the digital landscape is changing dramatically and changing fast, with over 500 percent growth in tablet ownership in just two years. It’s possible that the time for unshareable online content hidden behind a paywall has come.
What do you think? Are you willing to pony up for digital-only Newsweek reporting, or are you more likely to look elsewhere for free Newsweek-style news and commentary?
And the trees are celebrating. Content quality trumps content delivery system. Quality news and opinion are best shared digitally. Yes, I know that Newsweek has a long venerable, history in print, and it was a great magazine for a long time. But its gone downhill lately in quality, and now belongs online where it will compete for eyeballs with HuffPo, Slate, Salon, etc.
I will mourn when certain publications stop their print editions – The New York Times. New Yorker. Vanity Fair. Newsweek just isn’t on that list.
“Are you willing to pony up for digital-only Newsweek reporting, or are
you more likely to look elsewhere for free Newsweek-style news and
commentary?” Why would I settle for “Newsweek-style news and commentary” whether free or paid?