Washington Post Company has decided to sell off one of its key current affairs products Newsweek after it failed to cut the magazine's huge losses despite consistent efforts to slim it down.

The company confirmed on Wednesday that it has hired investment bank Allen & Company to look for an appropriate buyer for the magazine. It owned Newsweek for 49 years since 1961.

Analysts feel this is one of the landmark examples of the problems faced by print media today and its failure to recover from the same amid growing popularity of electronic media and internet. As per trends observed over last few years, advertisers are gradually shifting their focus from print media to other platforms.

Chairman of the company Donald Graham said in a statement that though the magazine staff and management gave their best, the company still stands to lose a lot of money this year. Operating loses of the company's magazines unit, including Newsweek, remained at $29.3 million last year following $16.1 million in 2008.

A long-term rival of Time Magazine, Newsweek was founded by Time's one of the former foreign editors Thomas Martyn in 1933.