Time Out will halt its print editions in America and Portugal.
The move comes as the brand, which publishes free magazines in urban areas around the world, released its first physical edition in London this week following the coronavirus pandemic, which shut down major cities and caused Time Out to rebrand entirely digitally as “Time In.” The last edition came out six months ago.
The halt does not affect most cities outside the United States.
Julio Bruno, Time Out Group’s CEO, told TheWrap Thursday, “As many city-dwellers are still working from home, Time Out’s print edition remains paused in the US. We cannot confirm when or if it will return at this time. However, Time Out continues to be a strong source for our readers. Through our digital channels and new content strands, we have seen noteworthy traffic across our website, as well as increased subscriptions for our free weekly newsletters. The shift from print to digital has been transitioning long before Covid-19.”
Bruno celebrated on social media this week as London re-launched physical copies of Time Out, writing on LinkedIn, “Today we are back on the streets of London. We are Time OUT again! The world has changed in the last few months and we need to adapt and change with it, however we still want to be part of the city and bring you information, innovation and inspiration. This magazine is dedicated to the memory of our beloved founder Tony Elliott who passed away on July 17th- ‘A one-off who changed our wold.’”
He added in his statement to TheWrap, “We have diversified our offerings accordingly over the last several years, staying ahead of the curve and excelling in the digital and physical space. Our shift in focus has resulted in our products flourishing from our digital properties, e-commerce and our tremendously successful hospitality offering, Time Out Market — which is the world’s first food and cultural market based wholly on editorial curation. The first Time Out Market location in Portugal quickly became the country’s main tourist attraction and gained 4.1M visitors in 2019.”
Elliott, who launched Time Out in 1968 while studying at the University of Keele in England to help “people discover the exciting new urban cultures that had started up all over the capital” in London, died last month at the age of 73.