JET Magazine Shuts Down Print

OMG Beauties! It’s the end of an era! Jet the pioneering African-American weekly magazine that rose to prominence covering the civil rights movement, has announced it will no longer publish a regular print edition, the latest in a growing list of periodicals avoiding print in favor of digital publications.

Its owner, Johnson Publishing Company, will move Jet to a largely digital format starting in June, delivered through its website and a paid subscription app. Last year, to cut costs, Jet reduced the weekly publication schedule of the digest-size magazine to every three weeks. Now there will only be an annual “best of Jet” print issue.

Linda Johnson Rice, chairwoman of Johnson Publishing, which also owns the cosmetics line Fashion Fair, positioned the move as a way to bring Jet into the modern age.

“Almost 63 years ago, my father, John Johnson, named the publication Jet because, as he said in the first issue, ‘In the world today, everything is moving faster. There is more news and far less time to read it,’ “ Ms. Rice said. “He could not have spoken truer words. We are not saying goodbye to Jet, we are embracing the future as my father did in 1951.”

In moving to digital, Jet joins a number of magazines that have recently reduced or eliminated their print publications after sharp drops in print advertising revenue. Last month, Ladies’ Home Journal announced it would be moving to a quarterly newsstand-only print schedule and otherwise would be digital. New York magazine moved from a weekly to a biweekly print edition last month.

 Read full story/Source: JetMag