Turncoat Tina: Newsweek print edition folds Dec. 31

Newsweek, which has published a weekly print edition for 80 years, will abandon the format and go all digital after its Dec. 31 issue.

The digital edition, to be called Newsweek Global, will be available via subscription on tablets and online.

Tina Brown, editor-in-chief of Newsweek Daily Beast, broke the news yesterday in a memo posted on The Daily Beast website.

“We are transitioning Newsweek, not saying good-bye to it,” she said.

“Regrettably, we anticipate staff reductions and the streamlining of our editorial and business operations both here in the US and internationally,” she added.

Brown did not disclose staff cuts, but it is expected substantial reductions will have to be made.

“We’re evaluating all of it right now,” Brown told The Post.

Barry Diller, chairman and CEO of IAC/InterActiveCorp, which owns Newsweek Daily Beast Co., signaled his intent to go digital during an earnings call in July. Brown immediately tried to spin the news that his comments did not mean the end of the print edition, but three months later, that’s exactly what has been unveiled.

The venture is losing an estimated $30 million to $40 million a year. More than half of the loss is attributable to Newsweek, while the Daily Beast is said to be losing around $10 million.

Brown, in an interview with The Post, acknowledged, “Our business has been increasingly affected by the challenging print environment, while Newseek’s online and e-reader has built a rapidly growing audience through the Apple, Kindle, Zinio and Nook stores as well as on the Daily Beast.”

Industry observers note that while folding the print edition will lower production costs, it will also mean a reduction in revenue since advertisers pay substantially less for each digital reader than they do for a print reader. Mailing costs of Newsweek amount to $45 million annually, Brown told The Post. Chopping the cost of producing 1.5 million printed copies on Newsweek a week, however, doesn’t mean instant profitability.

While ad-tracking services were reporting ad-page gains for Newsweek recently, a knowledgeable industry source noted that much of the increase was due to heavily discounted special sections that sell for less than half of a regular ad page.

Baba Shetty, who came aboard only weeks ago as the new CEO of Newsweek Daily Beast, said the title currently has 40,000 tablet subscribers.

Brown, in predicting future growth of Newsweek’s digital edition, said: “We’ll be at hundreds of thousands by the end of 2013.”

The Washington Post Co. — Newsweek’s previous owner — racked up losses of $40 million on the weekly during the two years ending August 2010, prompting its sale for $1 that summer to 92-year-old stereo-equipment magnate Sidney Harman, who owned it solo for several months before merging it with Diller’s Daily Beast in November 2010.

Harman died from leukemia several months after the merger, and his estate, headed by his widow, former Congresswoman Jane Harman, took over.

Earlier this year, the family said it was not going to invest any more money in the joint venture with Diller’s IAC.