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Thursday, October 30, 2008

Daily print magazine goes web only

Big News ! The Christian Science Monitor is about to become the first national newspaper in the US to go web only.

Its ditching print after 100 years and had a circulation as high as 220,000 in the 1970s, but now sells around 52,000 copies each day, while the website attracts 1.5m visitors a month.

It is forecast to lose $18.9m in the year ending April 30. The switch to web-only publication is projected to help cut this loss to $10.5m by 2013.

It is a development that will be watched closely by other newspaper publishers already struggling to maintain circulation levels and now facing the added threat of a significant fall in advertising revenue in 2009.

However, because the Monitor is run as a non-profit business, and is subsidised, its experience is somewhat different to most newspapers.

The end of the Christian Science Monitor as a daily newspaper comes at a tough time for the US newpaper industry as hundreds lose their jobs across the country.
Yesterday, Tribune Co's Los Angeles Times announced it was to cut 10% of its editorial staff, laying-off 75 employees as part of a 200-person reduction that began last week.

The New York Times cut jobs earlier this year and USA Today's owner, Gannett, is also cutting more jobs having announced 120 were to go in August.
The Star-Ledger, the biggest newspaper in New Jersey, said last week it was to make about 40% of its newsroom staff redundant with around 150 jobs going.

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