U.S. News and World Report ceases print operations, goes on-line only

I remember that for weekly news analysis, my Dad used to read only U.S. News and World Report magazine. I guess he felt it had less of a liberal bias than Time and Newsweek, which I hardly ever saw around the house.

In that light, I found it interesting to note that U.S. News owner Mort Zuckerman has decided to stop printing the formerly-weekly, now-monthly magazine, taking it to an online-only form beginning in January.

Daily Finance writes:

U.S.News may have learned something from newspapers. More and more papers have gone online and killed their print editions. The daily newspaper in Ann Arbor, Mich., a midsize market, last year discontinued its print product because it couldn’t stanch the bleeding that came from buying newsprint and operating the presses and trucks needed to get newspapers to peoples’ homes.

And even Newsweek and Time are suffering. Newsweek was lately sold for $1 after losing half of its audience in the last five years, and Time’s circulation is down 25% over that period. Will they be next to decide to “burn the boats” and stop printing at all?

As audience dwindles, economy of scale means that publishers’ profit margins for each issue will dwindle, too, until print simply becomes financially unsustainable. Sooner or later, ceasing print may be the lot of all but the most popular magazines.