Newsweek shutters its print magazine: First reactions
Editor-in-chief Tina Brown announces that the venerable weekly will publish its last ink-on-paper issue in December, and then become an all-digital enterprise
In an early morning memo on Thursday to all staff of Newsweek and its web companion, The Daily Beast, editor-in-chief Tina Brown announced that the last print edition of the 80-year-old magazine will be its Dec. 31 issue. In a move she called "a turn of the page," Brown said Newsweek will transition to an all-digital format early in 2013. The new publication will be renamed Newsweek Global and "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," she wrote. "We are transitioning Newsweek, not saying goodbye to it." Brown added that "regrettably," a reduction in staff is likely as the company streamlines editorial and business operations in the U.S. and abroad. Some initial reactions from the Twittersphere:
First a bit of context from Poynter, the nonprofit school for journalism:
And from The Wall Street Journal:
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The New York Daily News' Meena Hart Duerson:
Guardian reporter Richard Adams is less wistful:
National Review writer Jonah Goldberg:
Ad Age's Jason Del Rey:
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Jillian C. York of the Electronic Frontier Foundation:
BuzzFeed's McKay Coppins:
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Frances is a senior editor at TheWeek.com, managing the website on the early morning shift and editing stories on everything from politics to entertainment to science and tech. She's a graduate of Yale and the University of Missouri journalism school, and has previously worked at TIME and Real Simple. You can follow her on Twitter and on Tumblr.