Newsweek's Final Cover Bids Adieu to Print With a Hashtag

By Alexander C. Kaufman
The Wrap

December 24, 2012

Newsweek's final print magazine hit newsstands Monday morning, bidding adieu to the magazine's 80 year run with #LastPrintIssue hashtag emblazoned on its cover.

The headline -- a nod to the digital age that has made survival harder for print -- is splashed atop a black-and-white image of Newsweek's iconic former offices in New York City.

"At its best, Newsweek has always been about 'the team game': a bygone form of group journalism that's less concerned with big-name bylines than with big, cooperative storytelling; a collective endeavor that aspires to serve the readers, not the egos of the journalists they're paying to read," Newsweek writer Andrew Romano wrote in a lengthy, 9-page eulogy http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/12/23/an-oral-history-of-newsweek-magazine.html ], collecting memories a slew of former staffers throughout the years.

Newsweek announced in October that it planned to shutter its print publication, merging the magazine with editor Tina Brown's online network, the Daily Beast.

In 2013, Newsweek Global will now become a separate online-only venture, a "single, worldwide edition targeted for a highly mobile, opinion-leading audience who want to learn about world events in a sophisticated context," according to a post [ http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/18/a-turn-of-the-page-for-newsweek.html ] published months ago.

The magazine's last year in print was marked by provocative covers -- starting in August 2011 with an unkind snapshot of then-Republican presidential contender Rep. Michelle Bachmann to a photoshopped image of Princess Diana, altered to look as old as she would be now.

In May, Newsweek crowned President Obama "the first gay president," depicting him with a rainbow-striped halo. A few months later, amid a spate of violent protests in the across the Arab world, it printed a photo of raging protesters with the headline "#MuslimRage."