‘Entertainment Weekly’ & ‘InStyle’ Will Shutter Print Editions

Dodtash Meredith CEO Neil Vogel announced to staff Wednesday that the print publications for Entertainment Weekly, InStyle, EatingWell, Health, Parents and People en Español will be ending after April editions are released. When these brands go digital-only, approximately 200 employees will be terminated from the company.

EW and InStyle‘s parent corp, Meredith was acquired last year for $2.7 billion by Dotdash, the digital publishing arm of holding company IAC. Vogel, who became CEO of Dotdash back when it was known as About.com in 2013, took over as President of the combined Dotdash Meredith company at the time of the acquisition. In his memo to staff, Vogel called the move an “important step in the evolution of Dotdash Meredith.”

“We have said from the beginning, buying Meredith was about buying brands, not magazines or websites,” Vogel added in the memo, and also stated that going fully digital will help these brands “unlock their full potential.” He also pushed back against claims that the cut is “another nail in print’s coffin,” and ensured staff that “print remains core to Dotdash Meredith.”

Vogel also attempted to soften the blow of the 200 layoffs by claiming that they have “over 100 positions” available in other departments, and that “some of which” will be available to employees in the print operations division that are being let go.

Dotdash Meredith brands that will remain in print include People, Food & Wine, Better Homes and Gardens and Southern Living.

Entertainment Weekly and InStyle, which aimed at a general audience interested in pop culture more than trade-specific publications like The Hollywood Reporter or Variety, were both hugely popular when they were first founded in the ’90s, and continue to be extremely influential. However, fewer people read print magazines nowadays, and those issues have been compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic accelerating reliance on digital sources for news.