NEW YORK, US - PC MAGAZINE, which has documented the explosive growth of the personal computer since 1982, announced on Wednesday that it was dropping its print edition next year and going online only.

PC Magazine publisher Ziff Davis Media, which recently exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy, said in a statement that the final edition of the iconic magazine would be the January 2009 issue.

Ziff Davis said PC Magazine, which has suffered a steep drop in advertising as scores of competing publications cropped up on the Internet, will go 'all-digital' at PCMag.com.

'Moving our flagship property to an all-digital format is the final step in an evolutionary process that has been playing out over the last seven years,' Ziff Davis Media chief executive Jason Young said.

'Since 2000, online has been the focal point where technology buyers get their information and technology marketers are directing their dollars to drive demand and build their brands.

'We have been carefully preparing for this step and are fortunate to have a digital business that has the scale, profit, and opportunity to carry the brand powerfully into the future,' he said.

PaidContent.org, which covers digital media, said seven employees will be laid off as a result of the closure of the print edition of the magazine. The Ziff Davis Media statement made no mention of any job reductions.

PC Magazine is the latest US publication to drop its print edition and move to a Web-only format.

US News & World Report, long the number three newsmagazine in the United States behind Time and Newsweek, announced earlier this month that it was abandoning print for the Web and the 100-year-old newspaper the Christian Science Monitor announced plans recently to do the same. -- AFP