Newsbreak magazine to fold up (sort of)

I got my latest copy of Newsbreak magazine yesterday and was a bit surprised to read a letter from managing director Ma-an Hontiveros saying that they would soon stop printing the magazine. The magazine’s last print run would be the Feb. 12, 2007 issue.

Newsbreak will, however, continue to be published online (www.newsbreak.com.ph) and that existing subscribers have a choice to either avail of premium access to the site or a refund of their subscription fees.

“You may not have a magazine physically but I assure you that our online edition will continue with all the departments, features, and investigative reports that you have expected of the magazine,” Hontiveros says.

I said I was only a bit surprised because Newsbreak the magazine has not been a profitable venture and considering that its audience is the AB crowd (which means they have online access), going completely online is the logical thing to do.

Without the prohibitive cost of printing, Newsbreak can now have more resources to continue doing the groundbreaking and investigative stories that it is known for. The tools of online journalism — such as multimedia and blogging — will surely make these stories more interesting and informative.

If it plays the online game right, this could very well be the best decision the people at Newsbreak have made since the magazine’s founding.