Newsweek to Revive Print Edition

NEW YORK, Dec. 4 (UPI) —
Newsweek magazine, which went digital-only a year ago, will revive its U.S. print edition as a subscription-dependent weekly, the magazine’s editor said.

The magazine, started in February 1933 by a former Time magazine editor, expects to begin a 64-page weekly edition in January or February, Jim Impoco, Newsweek’s editor in chief, told The New York Times.

The new print edition will depend more heavily on subscribers than advertisers to pay its bills, and readers will pay more than in the past.

The Newsweek website made no mention of the print plans when United Press International checked early Wednesday.

The site’s “About Us” page called Newsweek “a primarily digital property available across platforms and devices” that publishes European and Asian print editions in Spanish, Polish, Japanese and Korean, as well as an English-language international edition.

The magazine’s move runs counter to print media trends.

New York magazine announced Monday it would cut back to a biweekly frequency from weekly. Other weeklies have reined in their publication schedules over the years amid shrinking print revenue and soaring paper and postage costs.

Newsweek, which had 3.3 million readers at its height in 1991, has struggled financially for years.

Washington Post Co. sold the magazine to billionaire investor Sidney Harman for $1 plus $40 million in liabilities in 2010. Harman then merged it with online The Daily Beast, a digital publication founded by Tina Brown in 2008.

Brown was not able to make the combined venture work and announced Oct. 18, 2012, Newsweek would no longer publish a print edition, saving owner IAC/InterActiveCorp $40 million a year.

The new online-only magazine would be called Newsweek Global, Brown said.

Seven months later, Brown said Newsweek would be sold to IBT Media, publisher of the International Business Times, and IAC/InterActiveCorp would focus on The Daily Beast.

In September, Brown stepped down from The Daily Beast and said she was leaving publishing entirely.

Impoco, who became Newsweek’s editor in September, has hired more than two dozen staff members and has said he plans to expand the magazine’s international coverage.

He told the Times he hoped the new print edition would have a 100,000 circulation within the first year.