March 28, 2024

The Jewish Week Pauses Its Print Edition

Other legacy Jewish publications have struggled recently. In April, The Canadian Jewish News folded; the announcement was illustrated by a drawing of matzo ball soup, with the matzo ball replaced by the distinctive coronavirus globe. The London-based Jewish Chronicle, founded in 1841 and billing itself the world’s oldest Jewish newspaper, was threatened with liquidation before a group of donors saved it in April.

The Forward, the venerable American Jewish newspaper, discontinued its print edition in January 2019 and soon after hired Jodi Rudoren, a former New York Times associate managing editor, as its editor in chief with a mandate to expand its digital reach.

The Jewish Week, whose print circulation dropped from 65,000 in 2005 to around 40,000 last year, was already moving toward a digital-focused presence, said Mr. Silow-Carroll, a former editor in chief of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency who joined the publication last year. The pandemic accelerated that shift, striking at the heart of crucial ad categories like travel, events, catering and camps, he added.

“The print model has been broken for a number of years now, compounded, quite honestly, by a lack of Jewish engagement,” he said. “Maybe that’s an easy way of saying we have an older readership that isn’t being replaced. And the way to find those readers, I think, is online, which is a reason I thought a move like this was inevitable.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/business/media/jewish-week-digital.html

Speak Your Mind