These days, it seems like everyone is carrying a bite-size product that practically holds his or her life’s contents. iPads, iPods, Nooks, Kindles and many other competing products are being released continuously. Print magazines and newspapers are having difficulty keeping up. Newsweek, a prevalent American magazine since 1933, is trying to accommodate its readers’ transition to a more technological life by abandoning its paper publication and going digital.
Similar to TIME Magazine, Newsweek produces hard-hitting current events news in addition to pop culture coverage. TIME, however, has been historically more successful due to its financial support.
Tina Brown, Newsweek’s editor-in-chief, is known for her controversial cover choices. The cover of the May 2012 issue reads, “The First Gay President” and portrays a stoic-looking Obama with a multi-colored halo shining around his head. I mention the magazine’s covers in particular because they are a trademark aspect that the magazine will lose in its transition to a digital publication. Brown commented on the paper’s digital move with the following statement:
Bittersweet, I say. Bitter, because I’d be lying if I didn’t confess to a bruised heart. I love print: always have, always will do. Sweet, because we are rising spiritedly to a challenge, not wringing our hands in impotent despair over the way modern life—and modern reading habits—have rendered our print edition unviable.
Since its first print publication, the magazine has undergone several administrative changes. In 1961, Newsweek was bought out by Washington Post Company. In 2010, it merged with The Daily Beast, an online publication that could not subsist after a dip in funding and the number of its subscribers. Money is once again an issue for the Newsweek/Daily Beast publication, and they’ve decided to cut their annual $40 million print cost by appealing to the Internet crowd, otherwise known as the world.
Spin Magazine, a once-print, online music magazine, also adopted a digital format after the 2008 recession. Nowadays, Spin prospers from its iPad app. So, all-in-all, Spin’s transition caused no major ramifications.
Newsweek, however, reaches a much broader audience than Spin. Its decision to go digital could influence other large publications like The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, even though both their print and digital publications are still afloat. The effects this has on other publications could be just as easily positive as negative. Perhaps former Newsweek readers who enjoyed the magazine’s physical quality will flock to existing print publications rather than Newsweek.com. This would help sustain other newspapers that face the same difficulties ahead.
Or perhaps the elimination of yet another print publication will cause readers to abandon their clunky newspapers entirely. What’s another app icon compared to a 60-page packet that blackens your fingers? We’ll just have to stay tuned to the news (in whichever format it presents itself) to find out.