Baba Shetty (Photo via Twitter).

Baba Shetty is stepping down as CEO of Newsweek/The Daily Beast after just nine months in the position, editor in chief Tina Brown wrote in a memo that went out to staff this evening. Mr. Shetty will take the summer off to "spend time with his family."

Newsweek's international publisher Rhona Murphy will return to New York as interim CEO.

Mr. Shetty, who came over from advertising agency Hill Holiday, succeeded Stephen Colvin as CEO back in September. But unlike Mr. Colvin (and in an unusual chain of command), Mr. Shetty reported directly to Ms. Brown. 

"I wanted to let you all know that Baba Shetty is moving on as CEO, taking the summer off to spend some time with his family," Ms. Brown wrote in the memo. "He has presided over a terrific nine months of product development and digital growth here, during which time he has brought in and cultivated a dynamic digital team, led by Mike Dyer. We wish Baba great success in his future ventures."

It's been a rough nine months at Newsweek/The Daily Beast, to say the least. Just last week Ms. Brown and Mr. Shetty confirmed reports that parent company IAC was exploring selling off the magazine, which shuttered the print edition and went digital-only at the beginning of 2013. Last winter, the magazine laid off staffers in what sources at the time called a "bloodbath."

Family time is looking better and better.

Photo credit: Newsweek

Newsweek's last print publication went out on December 24, not with a bang but with a hashtag. Today, the newly digital-only publication unveiled a new, all-digital cover for the January 11 issue. And, as befitting the medium, the cover is animated. Can't do that on old-fashioned, physical newsstands.

"Have We Hit Bottom?" the cover asks. The question refers to the cover story on deep-sea diving "as funding for ocean exploration dries up" (get it?) not the  fact that the one-time high profile weekly print mag is now digital only. The story goes down under with the last human-manned sea expedition before the robots take over. Everything seems to be going digital, doesn't it?

The cover story is available free, on The Daily Beast site, as is a good portion of the contents. But if you want to subscribe to the full issue, you can download the App on your iPad and subscribe for $2.99 a month or $24.99 a year (just $5 more than a yearly subscription to Andrew Sullivan's The Dish blog when he takes his blog rogue next month). An individual iPad issue is $4.99. If you have a Kindle Fire, the yearly subscription is $29 and on a Nook, the first two weeks are free. A monthly Nook subscription is $2.99 and an individual issue is $1.99 (the annual price is not listed). Just want the magazine on your iPhone? The Newsweek for iPhone App launches in February. Can't or won't wait? Use the Nook IOS App.

#TheFutureIsNow

On the one hand, it is hard to imagine that the hashtag will register with Newsweek’s most loyal readership. On the other hand, if the zeitgeist was against Newsweek (as Tina Brown said in a November interview in New York magazine), well, we guess hashtags are zeitgeisty.

But mostly, we are glad that somebody learned from the "muslim rage" hashtag misfire back in September. Although the hashtag #LastPrintIssue isn't exactly trending, some people are using it. So, that's something.

Rhonda R. Shearer, the widow of Stephen Jay Gould and proprietor of media watchdog site iMediaEthics, just published an extensive article on her site investigating a Newsweek article from 1967--and a follow up article that was published last month by The Columbia Journalism Review.

The long and winding tale starts way back in 1967, when Newsweek ran a cover story called “Trouble in Hippieland” by a then 28-year-old writer named Bruce Porter. The scare piece told the sad tale of a drugged out and washed up teen-runaway named Marcy.

Mr. Porter went on to write the book-turned-Johnny Depp movie Blow and teach at Columbia Journalism School, where he often used the story as a cautionary ethical tale. He had promised Marcy anonymity, but then revealed not only her name, but her hometown, drug use, back alley abortion and other identifying details.

In 2011, three years after retiring from Columbia,  Mr. Porter decided that he would find Marcy and apologize for betraying her, a documentary crew in tow. Along the way, Mr. Porter, managed to reveal many more details of her life. Mr. Porter writes about his quest in the November/December issue of the Columbia Journalism Review and ends the piece by acknowledging that he seems to have  betrayed Marcy’s trust once again. “It was as if I’d never learned a thing,” he writes. “Oh, Marcy, I thought, I’ve done it to you all over again!”

The CJR piece revealed Marcy’s last name, the names and identifying details of her family. Additionally, an accompanying photo showed her home address. Mr. Porter didn’t tell Marcy that the piece was running in CJR, although she did sign a release and was interviewed on camera for the documentary, which is still in the works.

Marcy did not hear about the CJR article until Ms. Shearer sent it to her.

“He should have let me know before he did that,” Marcy told Ms. Shearer. "I’m hearing something from you but I didn’t hear anything from them.”

Mr. Porter acknowledged that, in retrospect, he should have told Marcy about the CJR piece.

“The CJR piece was a way of getting attention for the documentary,” Mr. Porter told Off the Record. “In the best of all worlds I would have called Marcy to tell her about the piece.” Mr. Porter explained that he didn’t think of it because of her involvement with the documentary.

Ms. Shearer also contends, however, that she found factual errors in the original story, noting that a 1967 radio story contradicted many of the key details in the Newsweek piece. In a WNEW radio broadcast, also from 1967, Marcy, who said she was 19 (not 17) was given the phone to call her family. "They lied, mother, they really lied” and “it isn’t like they said," Marcy said, in a one-sided phone conversation that makes for difficult listening.

According to Ms. Shearer, Marcy wasn’t informed that she was being recorded at the time and had never heard the radio piece.

Over the years, whenever Mr. Porter played the tape for his journalism classes, he would get a lump in his throat. The tape has been sampled by  pop bands and is widely available on the Internet.

According to Ms. Shearer, CJR should have used this material to correct the original Newsweek story.

“Memory is a funny thing,” Brent Cunningham, CJR’s deputy editor, told OTR. “Our intention was not to re-report a 40-plus-year-old Newsweek story.”

Mr. Cunningham said that CJR relied on Mr. Porter’s notes from the original story, the Newsweek story itself and certain factual details about Mr. Porter’s trip to Flint, Michigan.

“It seemed like the bigger problem was what happened after the story,” Mr. Cunningham said.

Mr. Cunningham was referring to an article in The Flint Journal, Marcy’s hometown paper. After Mr. Porter enlisted the local paper to help publicize his search for the one-time flower child, a reporter from the paper called him the following week for an update.

Mr. Porter told the reporter that they had found her and she was living in Hawaii, although he knew that was not true. Marcy had lived in Hawaii for a time but was by then back in Flint. The Flint Journal published a story, based on the conversation with Mr. Porter, saying that Marcy was living in Hawaii, which upset Marcy.

“It was the wrong thing to do,” Mr. Porter told OTR. “What I should have done is confided in the reporter and said, ‘Yes, we found her but she doesn’t want more publicity.’”

Still, neither Mr. Porter nor Mr. Cunningham felt that that had a place in the CJR story since it happened after the narrative of the piece ended.

“It’s funny that Rhonda is trying to turn Bruce into a journalistic villain when he was really just trying to make amends for a youthful mistake,” Mr. Cunningham said. “Maybe it backfired, but not in this piece.”

"Layoffs are mostly bad for companies, harmful for the economy, and devastating for employees," the piece concludes. "The damage from overzealous downsizing will linger even as the economy recovers—and as it does, perhaps managers will learn from their mistakes."

However, the piece also noted the argument against layoffs doesn't apply to the media industry and went on to provide a grim forecast for the now folded magazine's future.

"If your industry is disappearing or permanently shrinking, layoffs may be necessary to adjust to the new market size, something occurring right now in newspapers," the unbylined article said. "Some troubled industries seem to be in perpetual downsizing mode; the U.S. auto industry, to take just one example, has been shedding employees consistently for decades. (Newsweek is familiar with these pressures: its head count is down significantly in recent years.)"

The article went on to note that businesses that are unable to avoid layoffs (as Newsweek was) would face an "eventual demise" (as Newsweek has).

"As for firms that have no choice but to cut jobs, if your company is the 21st-century equivalent of the proverbial buggy-whip industry, don't fool yourself—downsizing will only postpone, not prevent, your eventual demise."

Perhaps Ms. Brown and her backer Barry Diller should have read Newsweek before they got into bed with it. In this case, the call came from inside the house.

Update: A source calls the layoffs "a bloodbath" and estimates that half the editorial staff will be gone.

Newsweek’s print edition is ending in a matter of weeks, and the anticipated staff changes have already begun. Layoffs are expected to be announced this afternoon, a tipster tells us. Meanwhile, we hear that a few editors are proactively jumping ship.

Damon Linker, Newsweek’s commentary editor,  is decamping to teach at Penn and iPad editor Melissa Lafsky is leaving for a start-up, a source tells us.

Earlier today, Tina Brown announced three promotions: Justine Rosenthal, the magazine's executive editor, will become the editorial director of The Newsweek Daily Beast Company; the executive editor of Newsweek International, Tunku Varadarajan, will become editor of Newsweek Global; and Deidre Depke has been named editor of newsweek.com. Ms. Depke, former editor of the magazine's website, returned earlier this year as executive editor of The Daily Beast.

"I am pleased to announce some very important promotions that strengthen our organization as we commit to our digital future," Ms. Brown wrote in her memo, Capital New York reported.

We will update when we know more. Tips? Send them over: ksmoke@observer.com.

UPDATED: A memo went out confirming layoffs.

"The sad moment has arrived when we must go forth with the editorial staff reductions that we discussed in person with all of you several weeks ago," the memo says.

Memo below:

To: All Staff
From: Tina Brown / Baba Shetty

The sad moment has arrived when we must go forth with the editorial staff reductions that we discussed in person with all of you several weeks ago. Employees in the affected positions will be notified today. Much of this has already happened on the business side, and today we will be letting staff on the editorial side know where we will be eliminating positions. This is a very difficult day, and one that we approach with enormous regret.

Anyone whose job (or job category) is affected will meet today with a senior member of the editorial team. No one will be asked to leave before December 31st (and many will stay at least into mid-January). Managers will be getting in touch later this afternoon with groups of affected employees to let them know when and where their particular meeting will take place. After the meetings with management, you should feel free to speak with Holly Antiuk or Lauren Strada for more specifics on all aspects of this transition. We are working to ensure that the process is handled as sensitively as possible.

Tina & Baba

It was balmy: 60 degrees and sunny. The holiday decorations felt out of place in the mild breeze. But the frost was creeping in—media winter (as foreshadowed in October by the fall of Newsweek) was in full swing by 9 a.m. on the first Monday in December.

First came the announcement that The Daily, Rupert Murdoch’s foray into iPad journalism, was being shuttered after less than two years and many millions of dollars. The news wasn't wholly unexpected. A third of the staff had been laid off over the summer, and a sense of doom and gloom had hung over the ninth floor of News Corp. HQ ever since. It was a matter of when, not if, the tablet app would disband. But, as with any death watch, just because it’s expected doesn't make it any less humbling.

The Daily debuted to great fanfare in 2011. It was heralded as Rupert’s pet project and named after Clark Kent’s Daily Planet. But just as Superman recently lost interest in journalism, so too apparently did The Daily’s readers. The app amassed only 100,000 subscribers.
There was small solace in the official memo—some of The Daily’s 100 or so remaining staffers would join editor in chief Jesse Angelo over at The New York Post, where he will take over as the tabloid’s publisher. “Technology and other assets from The Daily, including some staff, will be folded into The Post,” said the News Corp. press release.
Richard Johnson, The New York Post’s former Page Six czar, was one such enfolded asset. Mr. Johnson made the high-profile jump out West to head up The Daily’s Los Angeles bureau back in 2011. “The Daily, the newspaper for the iPad we launched nearly two years ago, will stop publishing Dec. 15. I am now working for the New York Post,” Mr. Johnson explained on his Facebook page. There was no word on whether Mr. Johnson would return to Page Six, although a spokesperson said the scribe would stay in L.A.
But there were precious few announcements from such survivors. Most Daily staffers found themselves with spare time on their hands. Fortunately they got to keep their office iPads.
Then, even before the morning lines had died down at Starbucks, The New York Times announced that it was trimming the newsroom fat.
“As we all know, these are financially challenging times,” publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. wrote in an icy staff email. “While our digital subscription plan has been successful, the advertising climate remains volatile and we don’t see this changing in the near future, None of this is easy in these difficult times. Thank you all for your courage, your talent and your commitment to fulfilling our mission. You will be hearing more from your managers.”
Employees were invited to take voluntary buyouts. Or else ... layoffs. Inevitable layoffs.
“I hope the needed savings can be achieved through voluntary buyouts but if not, I will be forced to go to layoffs among the excluded staff,” executive editor Jill Abramson wrote in a separate email to Times staff. “I expect that I will have to reduce the excluded staff by about 30 positions.”
But the Newspaper Guild, which just accepted a contract with the paper, wanted to extend the opportunity for buyouts to its members.
“The Newspaper Guild has asked that we offer Guild employees in the newsroom the opportunity to apply for buyouts. Among Guild employees, we are only looking for volunteers, for people who might see this offering as advantageous at this time,” Ms. Abramson wrote. “If you are interested in a severance payout, and leaving The Times, we invite you to pick up a copy of the guild package.”
The cold wafted through the newsroom.
The downsizing news at least gave new Times CEO Mark Thompson one more reason to be glad he had postponed his town hall meetings. Mr. Thompson has not had the smoothest transition into his new job, after all. The BBC Newsnight scandal followed the former BBC director across the Atlantic, raising questions both inside and outside the Times newsroom.
As Off the Record previously reported, Mr. Thompson planned to address the questions in town hall meetings on December 17 and 18. But, even before the cost-cutting news, Mr. Thompson announced he was pushing back the customary meet-and-greets to 2013. “I wanted to address questions about it at the Town Halls once the enquiry was out and all the facts were known,” Mr. Thompson wrote in a memo to staff. “It now turns out that Nick Pollard [who is in charge of the BBC enquiry] will not submit his report at the end of November as originally planned but some weeks later. As a result, I believe it makes sense to move the Town Halls to early in the new year.”
Hopefully, the thaw will have begun by then. Or at least temperatures will stabilize. For now, we are stocking up on long underwear.

But as we read the seven page Q&A with Slate founding editor Michael Kinsley, we were struck by Ms. Brown's frequent use of imagery. So very illustrative! So imaginative! We can practically see it all, from Cinderella waking up from the ball that was the Talk launch party to the refrigerators on each foot that was the print edition of Newsweek. 

We have collected some of our favorites below.

On austerity:

Maybe everyone will now see the light—I hope so. But maybe we’ll all cartwheel over the same austerity cliff.

On becoming a citizen:

9/11 made me a New Yorker. I decided I cared so much about this country that I was kidding myself that I was ever going to go back to the U.K. It was time to get married.

On not being able to save Newsweek:

I think it was a romantic gamble that there was still life to be had for Newsweek.

On the death (or dearth) of glamour at Newsweek:

You know, it was very funny—when I looked at the document of sale, it was like the vestiges of the great galleon it had been. It was like that wreck of the Titanic in the James Cameron film—they’re swimming through the rooms, and you see the chandeliers. Every so often, you would swim around a corner and see a chandelier—things like private dining.

On shedding the print weekly:

But it’s like having a refrigerator on each foot—to have this carapace of the print magazine and all its problems, and all its legacy of unsolved issues.

On the changing media landscape:

Elephants can’t tap dance.

On the (in) famously lavish launch party for Talk:

But, in a strange way, that party was the end of the twentieth century. It was the great end-of-twentieth-century party. I remember going back on the barge afterwards with Natasha Richardson, Kate Moss, and all these people, and this big cold wave came flooding over the boat. It was two o’clock in the morning, and we were all soaking. It was like Cinderella waking up from the ball.

And, of course, that view of Manhattan from the party—very shortly, the Twin Towers were down. New York had changed utterly. Utterly. I mean, we never would have had that party after 9/11. It just ended like that. It was really, really romantic.

On working with older men:

You go to war with the army you have. Please. Let’s not talk about me having things for Si Newhouse and Harvey Weinstein. I enjoyed working for both of them, even Harvey.

On the preponderance of conferences:

There’s a lot of them. But you know what it also tells me? That people are hungry to hear really interesting conversations. They really are.

The people are famished. And they will feast on intelligent conversation like so many banquet dinners.

Mostly though, we were struck, like Ms. Brown herself, by that cold wave of water hitting the boat as she came back from to New York Harbor from the Talk launch party. How apocryphal.

We can't wait for Ms. Brown's emblematic anecdote that perfectly encapsulates this time in which we live, when we have abandoned the romance of print in favor of the Internet. And in favor of endless conferences. Because that illustrative anecdote is sure to emerge someday. Just maybe not in the pages of a magazine.

DvF and Mitch: lovers once, buddies forever!

As we sloshed, caked with snow flurries, into the Mandarin Oriental for the 2012 Phoenix House Fashion award dinner last Wednesday evening, we couldn’t determine whether it was the way-too-early winter outside, the Sandy-forced relocation or the early start after an endless election season, but at first glance, things looked a bit quiet. (In retrospect, we appreciated the venue upgrade, considering it was originally slated to take place at Pier 60.)

“Well there’s Linda Fargo, at least ...” we uttered to a weary-eyed publicist as she sashayed passed us in a crisp black sheath dress, before we sauntered downstairs to cocktail hour.

Below, on the 35th floor, the considerably more lively and notable fashion crowd imbibed, heedless of the blizzard-like winds that howled without mercy on the commoners struggling to get around Columbus Circle.

With the exception of Glenda Bailey, this didn’t feel like a typical fashion event; nay, it was considerably more corporate—a bit cliquey, but not necessarily in a bad way. Dashing executives (well mostly dashing) in flamboyant tailored suits sipped scotch and red wine, while a more demure population of women squawked about recent highs and lows.

This reeked of powerful retail and media industry figures rather than overcompensated stylists and over-photographed fashion mavens.

The Observer wasn’t feeling particularly social, but we decided to meander aimlessly about the lobby, gorging ourselves with vegetable spring rolls every time they passed.

Eventually, someone had the brilliance to ring the dinner gong and get the show on the road.

“You’re stuck with me,” laughed Rose Marie Bravo, the fashion branding and commerce star, as she welcomed the Phoenix House patrons now enjoying their first plating around candlelit tables. She apologized for emcee Ali Wentworth, who was “lost somewhere in the city.”

“This past week has been a tragic one,” she continued. “Many of our friends have been left homeless or without power.” She went on to explain what Phoenix House does: it helps thousands of people struggling with substance abuse and addiction through its pioneering treatment program. For a second or two, The Observer stopped sipping. But only a second or two.

Seated before us was honoree Jim Gold, president of The Neiman Marcus Group; Tory Burch, evasive and on high alert with her pending lawsuit against ex-husband Chris Burch still ablaze; and Calvin Klein’s Francisco Costa. The weather was most likely to blame for the empty seats, and there was substantial mention of Hurricane Sandy and its affect on the Phoenix House community.

“Substance abuse is an epidemic that plagues the USA,” began Phoenix House CEO Howard Meitiner.

He was followed by a young client of Phoenix House, who spoke of his history with drug abuse, dealing and violence. It was simple, honest and very effective. He said he is now rightly on track, working toward a degree in social work.

“Drug abuse can happen to anyone’s child,” said Mr. Meithner, then diving into the politics and ethos of the drug culture in America.

“But recovery is achievable and sustainable,” he concluded, just as Ali Wentworth, our long-lost emcee, finally stampeded in.

“I’ve got a husband who said, ‘I’ve just done 36 hours of ABC election coverage! You’re gonna get into bed with me!’” she blurted to our disbelief, about her hubby, George Stephanopoulos.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, not only was the fabulous hostess late because she was having a roll in the hay, she announced it to us all! Our kind of gal. And poor George, election aside, he must have still been shell-shocked by his co-host’s odd drunken-like behavior on election night—Cheers, Diane!

“They messengered this to me,” Ms. Wentworth continued, exposing a shiny Olivier Theyskens for Theory blazer that kept her décolletage in check.

“I thought I was chic, but maybe I’m just a shoplifter!”

We decided right then and there that we all wanted to leave and go home with Ali Wentworth.

Our hostess extraordinaire thankfully kept the pace brisk as we cruised into the awards segment. Monsieur Theyskens gave a poignant and astute speech before plopping a Phoenix House award in the hands of Andrew Rosen. The CEO of Theory then delivered a heartfelt personal story of his own family’s struggle with addiction and praised the Phoenix House for its wonderful work.

Tina Brown, editor in chief of Newsweek/The Daily Beast, made an anticipated handoff to Diane von Furstenberg. We never got to pester her with our gossipy questions about her publication’s demise.

“Diane is a vision broker,” Ms. Brown professed.

Once DvF accept her award, she dove into a tale of how she first met Phoenix House Founder Mitchell S. Rosenthal. Apparently Ms. von Furstenberg had mistaken the addiction innovator for ’80s star Chris Sarandon, whom she mistakenly referred to as Chris Rock. “He was hot,” she said.

“Then I got to know more about Mitch Rosenthal. I’ll spare you the details ...”

The romantic jaunts of the fashion queen brought the crowd great delight.

“This young, smashing man who looked like Chris Sarandon—created this place where shame was not an issue,” Ms. von Furstenberg gushed.

“I really want to make sure that we all raise our glass to this special man!”

At that flawless declaration, we lifted our glass, emptied it, and dashed downtown, to partake in rowdier action at Le Baron—alas, without Ali Wentworth.

Brown.

Is it happening again?

The bad time went by many names: the meltdown ... the shakeout ... the reckoning ... the death of print... or sometimes, simply, “trying to freelance.”

Old-timers can still remember it—how, amid the frozen winter of 2008, the corridors of once unshakable media empires ran red with ink as the insertion orders dried up and crumbled into dust. Aeron chairs grew wet with tears. Editors were cashiered, contract writers flung overboard like chum. Soon you could see them all over Midtown: the sleek black Town Cars sitting idle on cinder blocks, rusting in the bleak unforgiving sun.

It was terrifying. The death knell—a merciless, unrelenting Twitter feed titled “The Media Is Dying”—sounded on a daily basis, sometimes hourly. Staffers watched in fear as the ghouls of HR, fingernails dabbed in scarlet, inched ever closer.

No publication was spared. The New York Times cut 100 newsroom jobs. Time Inc., cut 600 and then, unsated, came back for more. At Condé, 180 souls were lost. Issues bleached on newsstands as replacements failed to arrive. Gone were Gourmet, Cookie, Elegant Bride, Modern Bride, Radar, Vibe, Portfolio, Blender, Home, Country Home, Metropolitan Home, O at Home, Cottage Living, Southern Accents, Hallmark, Best Life, Golf for Women, Travel + Leisure Golf, Domino, Teen, Cosmo Girl, Playgirl, Quick & Simple, Men’s Vogue, PC Magazine.

Poof.

Graydon Carter was reduced to waiting in line in the Condé cafeteria—Frank Gehry’s suddenly funereal Windex wonderland—an industry titan contemplating garlic-free stir-fry and make-your-own salads, trapezoidal tray in hand. Flower deliveries stopped cold. The devil could barely afford Prada.

Christmas parties were summarily canceled, dancing on graves having been deemed unseemly and expensive. Throughout the industry, a sobering sadness fell. Gone even were the days of schadenfreude; survivor’s guilt was all that remained. There was talk, endless talk, about the future of the industry and how to adapt to the changing world. There were lessons to learn.

But then, ad sales bounced back. Companies started hiring again. Mr. Carter opened Monkey Bar. Things may not have been as lavish as they’d been in the glory days, but they were better. Better was the operative word—it made it possible to forget. A collective amnesia settled in. The storm was over, and the sunshine was so very pleasant. Yes, media is a shaky industry, people would ruefully acknowledge. The future is digital, that much was obvious. iPad apps became de rigueur, but the investment was halfhearted. Websites were relaunched, then re-relaunched, then more or less ignored.

Things are fine now, people said. Let’s focus on the next deadline.

The reprieve has been sweet, but will it last? Lately there have been some uneasy rumblings, a disturbance in the Force, small but unmistakable indications that the past is catching up with us. The Daily, Rupert Murdoch’s bold foray into the tablet future, laid off 50 a few months back. Condé Nast just let 60 staffers go after announcing that all its magazines needed to slash 5 percent from next year’s budget. Most had already had to cut 10 percent over the summer. Hearst is reorganizing the shelter titles, but it’s hard to take shelter anywhere when there are cracks in the foundation.

“We’ve gone through a period of treading water, but now it’s crunch time, and there will be lots more of these,” said Paul Armstrong, who writes the “The Media Is Dying” Twitter feed. Although Mr. Armstrong continued tweeting through the good times, his dispatches were mostly about innovation and other happy things. Now he is once again the angel of death.

Last week, Tina Brown announced that Newsweek would cease printing a physical magazine in December. The cracks are getting harder and harder to ignore.

“We are transitioning Newsweek, not saying goodbye to it,” Ms. Brown wrote in a Daily Beast post. Transitioning ... Sounds painless, doesn’t it? Like shedding one’s corporeal vessel and just floating up to the clouds ...

“We remain committed to Newsweek and to the journalism that it represents,” she continued, reassuringly. “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.”

But had anybody really learned anything in the intervening years? Newsweek and the Daily Beast merged in 2010—a marriage of convenience that was never very convenient at all.

Newsweek struggled during the two years under Ms. Brown. There were misfires like September’s “Muslim Rage” cover, the “First Gay President” cover and the “crazy eyes Bachman cover,” and fan fiction imagining Princess Diana alive at 50. Just last week, a six-page cover article asserted that heaven is indeed real. The strategy might have gotten the magazine some publicity—indeed, mocking the Newsweek cover became something of a media sport—but it didn’t sell enough copies of a magazine that relied almost entirely on subscriptions. Meanwhile, the Daily Beast began to suffer, becoming just another good-enough aggregator that spent an awful lot of time covering the royal family. “Read This, Skip That” was the Beast’s motto. Over time, we began to skip it all.

Try as Ms. Brown did to put an upbeat spin on the news that there would be no more Newsweek, she could not avoid the unavoidable fact that there wasn’t room or money for all her employees in the exciting digital future.

“Regrettably we anticipate staff reductions and the streamlining of our editorial and business operations both here in the U.S. and internationally,” she wrote.

Now, once again, there is fear and paranoia and silence.

Hold onto your K-Cups; it’s probably just beginning.

“We are certainly going to see more of this,” said Reed Phillips, managing partner and co-founder of DeSilva & Phillips, a media banking firm. “It’s a product of the downturn and the transition to digital. But most publications will transition in a more gradual way.”

The hope, of course, is that magazines will figure out how to bring in revenues with digital before they have to kill print. But sources working on the digital side at various media companies privately express doubt that there is really a substantial commitment to apps and websites, despite the easy enthusiasm.

“Magazines can ‘survive’ by going all-digital, but, like Newsweek,will find that they can only justify a small staff, given far reduced revenues,” said Ken Doctor, a news industry analyst. “It’s a downward spiral.”

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking, and iPad apps don’t monetize themselves.

“Time is running out faster on the print products than magazine publishers anticipated, and their tablet products, readers and advertisers aren’t yet ready to replace that print,” Mr. Doctor added. Thanks, Doc.

Newsweek Global may well work. It probably won’t. But either way, the magazine industry should take note. Unless the Mayans were right about 2012, there probably isn’t much time.