Tina Brown Ran Out of Ideas for the Last Newsweek Cover Ever
This week's issue of Newsweek is special because it's the last one ever. Yes, as promised, after this issue the magazine is switching to an all digital format.
Newsweek just released the issue's cover. It's a minimalist shot of the old Newsweek Building in New York along with the hashtag #lastprintissue.
This is not a cool or self aware cover, this is lazy design.
Resting on the hashtag as a symbol of "digital is what took this thing down" is only kind of right. By employing a hashtag, Twitter's currency, as the central focus of the design, they're implying that Twitter was the Newsweek killer and its inevitable replacement.
A weak product filled with trollbait articles and an assortment of "freakish" covers did major damage to Newsweek. That's nothing Twitter could have ever done.
This cover could have spoken volumes about media history or perhaps showcased the legacy of Newsweek, but instead, they chose to promote a hashtag that no one will want to use. Tina's last fumble, everybody.
