Journalism standard-bearer Newsweek joined the extensive list of embattled news magazines, announcing on Thursday that a dozen staffers had been laid off.

Editor John Meacham released this memo to staff, which appeared on Politico today.

This has been a tough day for the magazine. Because the economic climate in publishing has become ever more difficult, we have been compelled by business considerations to eliminate about a dozen positions. We are parting company with colleagues who have done much to serve the magazine and its readers. As much as we would like it to be otherwise, market conditions mean that we are going to have to do our work with fewer people.

I have no spin to offer. I will say this, though: our new magazine and website have been well received by readers. The different direction we undertook earlier this year continues to appear promising in terms of building and retaining an engaged audience that we hope will be attractive to advertisers while we, like so many other organizations, seek new sources of revenue in order to fulfill our mission. Our situation is not unique. But we will keep working as hard as we can to find solutions that are.

Newsweek, Time Inc. and Conde Naste have all been forced to lay off staffers, as well as close down unprofitable magazines in the past two months. Conde Naste shut down four magazine titles earlier this fall and Time, Inc. is in the process of laying off more than 500 workers before Christmas.