By Daryl Lang

Updated 5:05 p.m. ET

As part of a move away from day-to-day news coverage, Newsweek has ended its longstanding participation in the White House photo pool.

“Given the new editorial direction our magazine is taking, we no longer require the blanket day-to-day photo coverage of the White House that we have in the past,” says director of photography Simon Barnett.  “Newsweek's future approach to White House photo coverage will be more targeted with coverage considered on a case-by-case basis,” Barnett adds.

On Monday Newsweek unveiled a major redesign that included a switch to higher-quality paper stock and a price increase.

The money-losing magazine says it is heading in a new editorial direction—less breaking news, more analysis—and plans to drop its guaranteed circulation from 2.6 million to 1.5 million by January 2010. The magazine has cut 160 positions in recent years and now has a staff of about 400.

For years, Time and Newsweek have been part of the White House magazine photo pool, in which each magazine took turns sending a photographer behind the scenes. Time plans to continue staffing it at the same level as before. "We have no plans to change our coverage," says Time spokersperson Daniel Kile. U.S. News & World Report was part of the White House magazine photo pool until 2005.

Newsweek has won several recent awards for White House coverage, including the 2009 Political Photo of the Year from the White House News Photographers Association. That award went to regular Newsweek photographer Charles Ommanney of Getty Images for a photo of Obama at his inauguration.

Ommanney and Khue Bui have been Newsweek's primary White House photographers, and both will continue to shoot for the magazine, Barnett says.

Newsweek’s reduced White House presence is already evident in its latest issue.
The cover photo of President Obama isn’t by a Newsweek staffer or contract photographer. It was shot by Olivier Douliery for the French photo agency Abaca Press.

Inside this week’s Newsweek, two full-page photos of Obama are credited to Pete Souza, the official White House photographer. Some news organizations, including the Associated Press and Reuters, have refused to carry Souza’s images because they are official government photos, rather than independent journalism.

"We use them periodically, as we always have, and as does everyone else," Barnett says. "Is that our first stop? No, it’s my last one actually.  But the pictures this week were ones that only Pete Souza and his team had access to, and they fit our needs best."

Related story
Dec. 1, 2005: U.S. News Quits White House Photo Pool, Lays Off More Staff