Newsweek to bring last print edition in December

Struggling American news magazine Newsweek will end its 80-year-old run in print this year to go all digital, in what was described by its editor-in-chief as a 'turn of the page' for the publication.

The newsweekly that was first published in 1933 would bring out its last print edition this December after struggling with declining circulation over the years.

The announcement came from Editor-in-Chief Tina Brown and CEO Baba Shetty on the website of the Newsweek's sister publication The Daily Beast.

The new all digital publication will be called Newsweek Global, and will be a single, worldwide edition, they said.

The new publication will be targeted for "a highly mobile, opinion-leading audience who want to learn about world events in a sophisticated context," they added.

Brown termed the development a "turn of the page for Newsweek" and said exiting print was an extremely difficult moment but it was necessary to embrace the all-digital future to sustain the journalism that gives the magazine its purpose.

The magazine had been struggling for several years and losing circulation in a rapidly digitalising world.

In 2010, after losing money for two years, the Washington Post group sold it off to businessman Sidney Harman for USD 1 in exchange for taking up its financial obligations.

It later merged with the online publication The Daily Beast.

"This decision is not about the quality of the brand or the journalism -- that is as powerful as ever," Brown wrote.

"It is about the challenging economics of print publishing and distribution."