The popular magazine ‘Newsweek’ that’s been gracing American newsstands for nearly 80 years, has given up on print – and has become a digital magazine. Come the end of December, Newsweek will no longer be sold in print. Today I take a look at what this means for the publishing industry, and how it will affect other ailing magazines.
Courtesy of abc.net.au
A Brief History of Newsweek
Newsweek, the incredibly popular tongue-in-cheek world news magazine, was founded in 1933 by Thomas JC Martin. Back then, you could buy a year’s subscription to the magazine for only $4. Since then, it was bought by the Washington Post and now has some 4 million readers across America. At least, that’s what it had until recently.
In 2005, Newsweek took a massive blow to their readership, dropping to 1.5 million readers. Needless to say advertising also took a knock, and plummeted by 80%. Newsweek was experiencing annual losses of around $40 million dollars.
The State of The Print Industry
There have been marked issues in the print industry since mobile and tablet technology became the prime source of news for people all over the world. That coupled with the rapid rise of social media technology and there is a direct correlation between the two. As social media grows, print shrinks.
It’s interesting that smartphone sales nearly doubled in 2005, and that Facebook was already rocketing to fame by then. Other magazines all over the world have been experiencing drops in their readership. Why buy a magazine when you can get your news as it happens, on your mobile social platform for free?
The print industry is in trouble. State of The Media recently reported that the top 25 magazines in America were all in a perpetual decline. Scanning this list, some magazines have lost as much as half of their readership in one shocking year. Clearly Newsweek is leading the way in the ‘new’ print industry – digital publishing.
Newsweek and Digital Publishing
As of the end of December 2012, Newsweek will become a digital publication only, called ‘Newsweek Global.’ To get it will require a paid subscription. In 2010, in an attempt to stabilize, Newsweek merged with ‘The Daily Beast’ website. Tina Brown, the Editor of Newsweek said that now, print economics just don’t make sense anymore.
Courtesy of media.rawsignal.com
I think it’s about time a large magazine deferred to digital media. If they want to maintain and even grow their readerships, then it’s clear that the only way to do this is by adopting the digital media platform.
Unfortunately there will be casualties – as with any large change in a leading industry. Tina has also warned that there will be layoffs because of the transition.
“Newsweek is produced by a gifted and tireless team of professionals who have been offering brilliant work consistently throughout a tough period of ownership transition and media disruption. Regrettably we anticipate staff reductions and the streamlining of our editorial and business operations both here in the U.S. and internationally.”
That end bit is a little bit of a concern. Perhaps Newsweek plans on outsourcing a lot of their writing, admin work and other media jobs to freelance workers overseas. They’re a lot cheaper, and the US government provides a tax break for hiring outsourced staff.
Whatever their next move, I think they’re doing the right thing and that many other magazines will soon be following suit. We support you Newsweek!
How do you feel about the Newsweek change, and the ailing print industry? Tell us about it here.
