NME magazine to end its weekly print edition

New Musical Express (NME), one of the UK’s best-known music publications, will soon no longer be available as a weekly print magazine, its publisher has announced.

The final edition of the magazine will be released on Friday, ending 66 years of “charting the madness of modern music”, The Guardian writes, and the title will continue as an online-only publication at NME.com.

The magazine’s publisher, Time Inc UK, said increasing production costs and a “tough” advertising market were the driving factors behind the decision.

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Instead, it will be “focusing investment on further expanding NME’s digital audience”, the BBC reports.

“Our move to free print has helped propel the brand to its biggest ever audience on NME.com,” said Paul Cheal, a managing director at Time Inc. “We have also faced increasing production costs and a very tough print advertising market. It is in the digital space where effort and investment will focus to secure a strong future for this famous brand.”

Launched in 1952, the magazine became a free publication in 2015, following ten years of dwindling sales that saw its circulation fall to just 15,000.

The hashtag “RIP NME” has been trending on Twitter since the news broke, and a number of high-profile musicians have shared their memories of the magazine.