Newsweek is retiring its print edition after 80 years and investing all its energies into an all-digital format.

The announcement came in a joint statement published on The Daily Beast website from Tina Brown, editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast and Newsweek, and Baba Shetty, CEO of The Newsweek Daily Beast Co.

The last issue of the US version of Newsweek will go on sale on 31 December, followed by editions in other countries. These will then all be replaced by an all-digital offering, renamed Newsweek Global.

Brown and Shetty explained how Newsweek Global would cater for a worldwide audience rather than specific regions, explaining that the reasons behind the decision were due to “the challenging print advertising environment”.

Readers will have to pay a subscription fee for content, which will be accessed through e-readers either on a tablet device or via the web. Some of this content will also be available from Newsweek’s The Daily Beast – a site that already boasts in excess of 15 million unique visitors a month. 

There’s no word on what the price of a subscription will be, but Newsweek Global’s all-digital format is expected to be available on Apple, Kindle, Zinio and Nook devices.

Pic: (Cc) mac-history.net