In a move its parent company is calling a "reorganization," Newsweek has laid off the entire staff behind its European print edition.
IBT Media, which bought the storied magazine in 2013, announced Tuesday that it plans to streamline its New York and London offices about 16 months after launching its European/Middle Eastern/African, or EMEA, edition. The London-based web team is expected to stay on, but all eight print staffers are being let go because of "redundancies" with the New York office. European editor Richard Addis will step down, the company said, though he will continue to advise IBT Media on business and editorial matters on a part-time basis. His replacement "will be named shortly" and will report to Newsweek Editor-in-Chief Jim Impoco in New York, a company spokeswoman said.
"The reorganization is part of a broader effort for us to continue our growth and expansion into the region and to serve more readers with the high quality journalism they expect from Newsweek," Johnathan Davis, IBT Media co-founder and chief content officer, told The Huffington Post. "We are consolidating leadership and streamlining operations to New York, but we will continue to have staff on the ground in Europe, and are committed to telling the stories that matter the most to the region."
Newsweek plans to continue publishing EMEA print and digital products, but with print content more closely resembling that of the U.S. magazine. Some people within the company have characterized the restructuring as a downgrade caused by insufficient ad revenue and marketing efforts, the U.K.'s Press Gazette reports. IBT Media says Newsweek’s EMEA edition has a circulation of 70,000, but this number has not been verified by auditors, which has made ad sales more difficult.
The company disputes the claim that it is downsizing.
"Reports that we are closing our EMEA edition or moving away from our commitment to the region and global growth are wrong," Davis said. A spokeswoman for the company added that the reorganization positions the publication for future growth.
Insiders described the decision to consolidate some New York- and London-based operations as hasty given that the EMEA edition was launched less than a year and a half ago.
A source within the company, who requested anonymity to speak about internal decision-making, suggested to The Huffington Post that a little more than a year was not enough time to judge the success of a new publication and that the EMEA edition had been "on the brink of breaking through."
Whatever the reason for or nature of the shift, it is a definite turnabout from three months ago, when Addis announced expansion plans that included launching new sections and hiring more writers.
"We are taking an important stand against babble. Our specialities are selectivity, in-depth reporting and real news," Addis told the London Evening Standard at the time, calling Newsweek "Europe's top news magazine."
Newsweek's EMEA edition launched to great fanfare in March 2014 as a home for long-form journalism and original reporting, particularly about Europe. The magazine had recently made headlines with an in-depth interview with former English Prime Minister Tony Blair and an exposé of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Once a fixture on coffee tables across the United States and the world, Newsweek ceased its U.S. print edition in 2012 under then-Editor-in-Chief Tina Brown after years of declining revenue and circulation. IBT Media later bought the beleaguered news weekly and relaunched its print product in March 2014.
