Newsweek announced yesterday it would end an 80-year run as a print magazine, taking the venerable publication all-digital in another sign of the woes of an industry struggling in the internet age.

Tina Brown, editor-in-chief and founder of the online Newsweek Daily Beast Company, said the change means the magazine will “embrace the all-digital future ... We are transitioning Newsweek, not saying goodbye to it.”

Like other US magazines and newspapers, Newsweek has been grappling with a steep drop in print advertising revenue, steadily declining circulation and the migration of readers to free news online.Circulation has fallen from more than four million a decade ago to around 1.5 million last year, and losses were mounting.

The last print edition in the US will be the December 31 issue. Brown said the new digital version would be a single, worldwide product.

Newsweek, which had a fierce decades-long rivalry with fellow American coffee-table staple Time magazine, has in recent times been losing money steadily and struggling with the transition to online journalism.

“I think Newsweek lost its relevance and that is somewhat obscured by the digital transition,” said Ken Doctor, an analyst with research firm Outsell. (AFP)