The Los Angeles-based Jewish Journal has halted its print edition as of Oct. 16 and is planning to move its news operations online.
In an Oct. 7 editor’s note, publisher and editor-in-chief David Suissa expressed hope that the print version of the outlet will resume once synagogues reopen. Synagogues are currently closed or operating on a limited basis due to the global coronavirus pandemic.
“Because the Journal is a nonprofit, we distribute the paper for free across the community. Readers can pick it up at various locations, especially synagogues,” he wrote. “When those synagogues and other locations began closing in March as part of the national lockdown, we pushed our way through, found some new locations and posted a PDF version of the paper online, always hoping that the lockdown would soon end and synagogues would reopen.”
Suissa wrote that the Journal will have new features, including “a Jewish Streaming Guide that will curate the most interesting streaming events in the Jewish world.”
Before the pandemic, the Journal had a circulation of 50,000 printed copies, shared by around 150,000 readers, according to recent figures.