Spin magazine has confirmed that it is shuttering its print edition, having been taken over by online media company Buzzmedia back in July. Despite much speculation that it would make the title online only, the American music mag’s new owners would not commit on the future of the printed Spin when it first acquired it, although some autumn editions were dropped out of the schedule.
The 27 year old magazine’s publishers posted a statement online that read: “Spin has halted publication of our print edition to invest more deeply in our digital properties, including Spin.com, Spin Play for iPad, and Spin mobile”.
Subscribers to the print title will be given the option of a refund or a subscription to an alternative print title published by another company. Meanwhile a representative for Spin, while confirming the shutting of the print magazine, told Mashable that “we’ve not ruled out bringing back SPIN in print [in the future], but we’re still determining those plans”.
Spin follows Newsweek in being a long-established US magazine going online-only in 2013. In the past traditional magazines dumping print has often been seen as a backwards step, though execs across the publishing industry will be watching to see if these traditional media brands can retain their credibility and be profitable as online-only operations.