Newsweek Drops Print Edition, It's Digital Publishing Only for 2013

After almost 80 years in print publication, weekly U.S news magazine, Newsweek is leaving the print world behind. Today, the magazine’s parent company, The Newsweek/Daily Beast Company LLC, announced that the long time magazine would cease the publication of their print version, in favor of a digital one in early 2013.

What About Print?

Tina Brown, Newsweek's editor and chief, and founder of the Newsweek Daily Beast Company, along with Baba Shetty, CEO, posted on the magazine’s website today. Due to the increasing demand of digital and online media, a decision was made regarding how the magazine should proceed.

Our business has been increasingly affected by the challenging print advertising environment, while Newsweek’s online and e-reader content has built a rapidly growing audience through the Apple, Kindle, Zinio and Nook stores as well as on The Daily Beast,” says Brown and Shetty in the post. “Tablet-use has grown rapidly among our readers and with it the opportunity to sustain editorial excellence through swift, easy digital distribution — a superb global platform for our award-winning journalism.”

The Future is Digital

The Daily Beast attracts over 15 million, up 70 percent from 2011, unique visitors per month with a lot of these visitors visiting articles by Newsweek reporters.

Exiting print is an extremely difficult moment for all of us who love the romance of print and the unique weekly camaraderie of those hectic hours before the close on Friday night,” said Brown and Shetty. “But as we head for the 80th anniversary of Newsweek next year we must sustain the journalism that gives the magazine its purpose — and embrace the all-digital future."

The post continues by saying that 39 per cent of Americans who were polled in a study from the Pew Research Center have said they read their news online. It’s because increase in digital readership, along with the previously mentioned factors that have lead The Daily Beast to make a change that they say will be profitable and beneficial to Newsweek’s readers.

We are transitioning Newsweek, not saying goodbye to it. We remain committed to Newsweek and to the journalism that it represents,” says Brown and Shetty. “This decision is not about the quality of the brand or the journalism—that is as powerful as ever. It is about the challenging economics of print publishing and distribution.”

The magazine’s last print issue will be released on December 31, 2012. The new digital only magazine will be renamed to Newsweek Global and will available by paid subscription to those with tablet and web e-readers, while selected content will be available on the The Daily Beast website.

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com

Report: Amazon Bargaining for Texas Instrument’s Mobile Chip Branch

Is Amazon negotiating to buy Texas Instruments's (TI) mobile chip operation? A new report says it is.

The report, from the Hebrew-language publication Calcalist, remains unconfirmed by either company, but it would mesh with TI’s recent announcement that it will concentrate on embedded platforms such as cars, and reduce its involvement in OMAP chips for smartphones and tablets.

Billions of Dollars

TI announced in late September that it would “reduce R&D expenditures” on the OMAP system-on-a-chip (SoC) used in a wide variety of tablets, including Amazon’s, and smartphones. Observers interpreted the announcement to mean that TI was leaving the mobile chip business, even as Intel has ramped up its investment in that market. The OMAP (Open Multimedia Applications Platform) chip was developed by TI.

The Calcalist report was authored by Assaf Gilad, who had been the first to report that Apple was interested in buying Anobit, a Israeli flash storage company. The technology giant did buy that company early this year, for about US$ 390 million.

If Amazon does buy TI’s chip business, it would gain greater control over the mobile destiny of its Kindle Fire tablets — and for smartphones that it might be developing. Samsung Electronics makes its own mobile chips, and currently manufactures Apple’s mobile chips, mostly based on Apple designs. However, Apple and Samsung are engaged in a worldwide patent war, and there have been numerous reports that Apple intends to take its chip manufacturing business elsewhere.

On the other hand, the deal would likely cost Amazon billions of dollars for a stake in a highly competitive chip industry, where smaller chip makers are struggling. It would also turn the virtual retailer’s focus more toward hardware.

Nook’s Vulnerability

The competitors who could benefit from TI’s move include Samsung, which, according to some estimates, could reach a 50 percent share of the OMAP SoC application processor market if TI’s operation is sold. Other beneficiaries could include Qualcomm and Nvidia, which together represent as much as 35 percent of the market. TI’s share had been in the 15 to 20 percent range.

One big competitive question is how this might affect Intel, which has said it will ship a dual core, Atom-based SoC before 2013.

The other big competitor impact could be on Barnes & Noble, which uses TI chips for its Nook tablets and e-readers. At the very least, having the Nook’s processor brains dependent on the chip subsidiary of its key competitor could put Barnes & Noble in a weakened bargaining and strategic position — and lead it to find another chip maker.
 

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com