There are many reasons newspapers do not endorse candidates: The endorsements don't sway many votes. Polls consistently show endorsements are not hugely influential outside of local races. And newspapers provide information on those races outside the editorial pages.

"Don't let anyone tell you how to mark your ballot," USA Today founder Al Neuharth wrote in a 2004 non-endorsement of endorsements.

But there are arguments for the practice, too. They can help swing close races. As Concord (N.H.) Monitor Editor Felice Belman told Mallary Tenore in 2008, "Why wouldn’t we give readers the opportunity to tell them what we’ve learned?” To be sure, the U.S. political system grants papers in important primary states like New Hampshire close looks at presidential candidates many papers never get. But those states are often stocked with people following local and national races obsessively. What's the harm of giving readers a download, especially in a close election where the public has displayed what seems to be unlimited demand for news and opinion?

Well, you might, say, endorse Hoover on the brink of the Great Depression, which the Wall Street Journal did in 1928, and readers might conclude your coverage is hopelessly slanted. This is sometimes cited as the reason that paper no longer writes endorsements (it somehow became the largest-circulation paper in the U.S. anyway).

More than a dozen U.S. newspapers endorsed a presidential candidate in the last week. Here's a tally for the largest circulation papers in the swing states. (more...)

Newsweek will publish its final print edition December 31, the company announced Thursday morning. It will launch a subscription product called Newsweek Global, some of whose content will be available on the Daily Beast. A note from Editor-in-Chief Tina Brown lays out the change:

In our judgment, we have reached a tipping point at which we can most efficiently and effectively reach our readers in all-digital format. This was not the case just two years ago. It will increasingly be the case in the years ahead.

Layoffs will accompany the move: "Regrettably we anticipate staff reductions and the streamlining of our editorial and business operations both here in the U.S. and internationally," Brown writes.

During an earnings call in July, IAC/InterActiveCorp CEO Barry Diller said Newsweek would announce a digital plan for the magazine this fall. After Bloomberg's Edmund Lee (presciently) interpreted Diller's statement to mean the magazine would eliminate its print edition, Brown emailed staff to note that Diller "did not say on the earnings call as reported that Newsweek is going digital in September." Brown revealed today to The Wall Street Journal's Keach Hagey that these discussions were under way before then. "We have been exploring it since June in a very aggressive way, because all the industry trends have told us that it was only a question of when, not if." (more...)