Newsweek Magazine Goes Full Digital After 80 Years of Circulation

After 80 years of circulation as a weekly print magazine, Newsweek is changing to a fully-digital format at the end of 2012. According to Barry Diller, head of the company that owns Newsweek, the decision does not come as a surprise to those working with the magazine. Diller claims that the publication had been examining its future as a printed product for some time now, and that circumstances have aligned well, allowing the publication to make the transition with far less effort than was originally feared. By switching to a fully-digital format, Newsweek will be able to meet time constraints easier, and employees have stated that the decision was made in light of the recent market for advertisements: digital is generally cheaper and, in the ever growing technological era of the twenty-first century, is a much more effective way to ensure more consumers actually see and acknowledge the advertisements. Tina Brown, editor-in-chief and founder of The Newsweek Daily Beast Co., has stated that there will be job cuts, though the business itself is not in jeopardy: Newsweek is evolving with the flow and flux of modern media.