The announcement by the publishers of NEWSWEEK Magazine that it would stop print publication and only be available on line in 2013 and after is a sad commentary on the changes in journalism, with the rapid decline of print and the rise of electronic journalism as the answer for the future.
NEWSWEEK dies as a print publication on December 31, 2012, at the age of 80, having started publication in the worst year of the Great Depression, 1933, the first year of the Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
It became a major competitor of TIME Magazine and US News and World Report, and now only TIME will survive as a print periodical, with no serious competition in the general news magazine market, on the news stands or by subscription.
Whenever any print journalism source dies, it is a loss to journalism, and sadly will add to the unemployment rolls!
While still on line, the world will never be the same once NEWSWEEK leaves us in print. It contributed a great deal to public discourse about important news events, and stirred intellectual debate. Overall, a very sad development!