Press Gazette to go quarterly

Press Gazette is to go quarterly after 43 years as the weekly, and more recently monthly, trade title for UK journalists. The move to quarterly publication in print coincides with the launch of a weekly digital edition, which was delivered to 7,000 subscribers for the first time on Thursday. The trade magazine went monthly in 2008. Dominic Ponsford, editor of Press Gazette, said the move to quarterly publication after 43 years was a sign of the challenges facing print titles in the UK. "It hardly needs to be said that with British journalism beset by challenges on all sides there has never been a more pressing need for journalists to have their own publication, fighting their corner, sharing best practice and holding the industry to account," Ponsford said. He added that Press Gazette would be boosted by its new digital edition, available on smartphones and tablet computers. Ponsford told MediaGuardian that the move was something of a "leap of faith", but that the digital edition would not cannibalise the quarterly print title. "To stay alive as a journalism brand these days you have to be pretty fleet of foot. The weekly digital edition is about us trying to stay ahead of the curve and reach as many readers as we can," he said. Press Gazette was bought by Progressive Media, owner of the New Statesman, in 2009 after three years under Wilmington Group. Piers Morgan and the PR agency owner Matthew Freud, husband to Rupert Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth, owned the title for a short time between 2005 and 2006.   Theguardian .