DESPITE the fact that the world did not end in 2012 as a doomsday prediction had expected it, some phenomena as we know them ended. One of these is the disappearance of the paper format of the once very popular journal, Newsweek, in a move toward digitalizing media. It is common news that most newspapers and journals now have a digital format along with their paper format. However, the end of 2012 witnessed an end of the era where paper-format newspapers reigned supreme. The current shift is toward the complete cessation of paper-format journals in favor of electronic ones. The era of newspaper popularity passed its prime and moved toward a paradigm shift. Newsweek which was started on February 17, 1933, turned digital two months before its 80th birthday in December 2012 when the giant magazine issued its last paper copy before it turned digital under the name Newsweek Global. It is both revealing and interesting that the words on the last paper copy cover says: “# Last Print Issue”. As we know, the sign “#” is frequently used in Twitter, a phenomenon of the Internet age. The move did not come as a surprise because it was announced on October 18, 2012 that the famous journal would discontinue its paper format by the end of 2012. The magazine announced then its intention to become part of the Daily Beast, an online journal. What connects both — the Daily Beast and Newsweek — are their editor-in-chief, Tina Brown, and their controlling company, IAC/Interactive Corp. Newsweek had been suffering a decline in its circulation and a huge plunge in advertising: both indicate a big financial loss. There is hope that going digital will curb expenses and bring in more advertisements. Moving digital does not mean that it will be free. The price of subscription is still the same. The journal simply followed its readership and advertising communities in a situation that demands less overhead. I personally like the new shift. It saves loads of paper and it saves the reader the bother of making it physically available. Yet, I have to admit that there is something nice about holding the journal in hand and flipping through its pages. However, as we did countless times, this is one more thing we will quickly get used to; it is even possible that we will end up thinking of electronic newspapers and journals as the norm. Americans will no longer have the latest issue of the Newsweek on their coffee table. All over the world we will no longer see movies where people open up their newspapers with breakfast or where boys earn money by distributing the papers in the early morning. The impact of this move will keep rolling throughout 2013. However, the big questions would be if it would still have the same status as before and if it will make enough money and attract sufficient ads. Newsweek's move is expected to have a strong impact on other struggling magazines and newspapers. With this move, Newsweek becomes the role model for many struggling journals that will go digital. They will not have to justify themselves. They can simply say, “Newsweek did it”.
