The weekly print edition of Soap Opera Digest is closing after five decades. Staff have been told  of the decision.A360Media, the company that owns the brand, confirmed that the weekly edition is being discontinued. The company plans to continue publishing special print issues of Soap Opera Digest four times per year. Soap Opera Digest was first launched in 1975. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp bought the publication in 1989 then sold it two years later and it has had a succession of different owners. In its heyday, the magazine had a circulation of 1.5 million in 1991. But the reach of its print edition, as with many magazines, has sharply fallen off in the decades since. A360media (formally America Media) houses a media portfolio of celebrity, entertainment and women’s lifestyle brands including Us Weekly, Star, InTouch and Life & Style ( once owned the National Enquirer).