ARTICLE: Soaps In Depth Merges With Soap Opera Digest

[Errol]

More than five years since the final print editions of ABC Soaps In Depth and CBS Soaps In Depth were displayed at grocery stores and supermarkets across the county, effective today, Thursday, May 29, the online-only iteration of the outlet is redirecting visitors to the Soap Opera Digest website, officially marking the end of Soaps In Depth as a standalone brand.

“You’ll still get all the soap coverage you love – just in a new home. Same stories, same writers!” read a pop-up message on the newly overhauled Soap Opera Digest website, also launched on May 29.

The first inkling that change was afoot began in mid-to-late April when eagle-eyed readers of the Soaps In Depth website noticed a significant drop in the outlet’s posting frequency, primarily limited to spoiler posts for “General Hospital” with sprinkles of “The Young and the Restless” and “The Bold and the Beautiful.” 

As for news content, the last published article at the Soaps In Depth website was an April 30, 2025 report on the exit of Allison Lanier as Summer Newman on “The Young and the Restless.”

As a result of the change, Chris Eades, who had run the Soaps In Depth website since 2015 as a senior editor, has formally joined the staff of the Soap Opera Digest website, led by executive editor Mara Levinsky.

McClatchy Media Company

The merging of the Soaps In Depth website with the Soap Opera Digest website comes just a few months after a360media, parent of Us Weekly, In Touch Weekly, Woman’s World, and the soap opera brands, among others, completed its merger with McClatchy, a legacy newspaper publishing company, to form McClatchy Media Company. 

The fully integrated entity now reaches a collective audience of more than 100 million unique visitors a month, while “fusing a local news chain that has won more than 50 Pulitzer Prizes with a line of lifestyle and entertainment magazines,” a press release indicated.

History of Soaps In Depth

Launched in 1997 with three distinct network print editions tailored to the daytime dramas airing on broadcast television at the time, including NBC Soaps In Depth, the Soaps In Depth brand was a direct competitor of the then-print edition of Soap Opera Digest, which launched in 1975.

On April 24, 2020, it was announced that Soaps In Depth would cease as a print publication after a 23-year run. The news came during the height of the Covid pandemic, which saw all television and film work halted across the world, including production on “The Bold and the Beautiful,” “Days of our Lives, “General Hospital” and “The Young and the Restless.” 

The final issue of CBS Soaps In Depth was displayed from April 27-May 11, 2020, while the final ABC Soaps In Depth issue was displayed from May 4-18, 2020.

By January 2022, a360media acquired the U.S. publishing division of Bauer Media Group, which included Woman’s World, First for Women and the Soaps In Depth brand, among others. As a result, the long-running soap brands (Soaps In Depth and Soap Opera Digest) officially became part of the same corporate umbrella.

In October 2023, it was announced that Soap Opera Digest would cease as a print magazine after a 48-year run as part of a broader shift in the magazine publishing business, and with its parent company at the time noting that the outlet would place “more resources to digital to better accommodate its audience.” The final print issue of Soap Opera Digest was dated November 13, 2023.

At press time, content published to the Soaps In Depth website had not been integrated into the Soap Opera Digest website, leaving readers to ponder which mechanisms to use for viewing archives of the outlet’s content. 

Also at press time, the Soaps In Depth X (formerly Twitter) account was sharing posts published on the Soap Opera Digest website, which included interviews with “General Hospital” star Dominic Zamprogna (Dante Falconeri) and “The Young and the Restless” star Susan Walters (Diane Jenkins), among other fresh articles published to the redesigned website.

It’s unclear if the Soaps In Depth social channels will be retained, and, if so, for how long. Meanwhile, the outlet’s Instagram account has not been updated since May 21.

Note: The post Soaps In Depth Merges With Soap Opera Digest appeared first on the Soap Opera Network website.

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[Liberty City]

It's sad that Soaps In Depth as a brand kind of no longer exists as we knew it, and the same goes for Soap Opera Digest. But this merge, beyond the design of the website, feels right. Bringing the best of the best together.

[Marco Dane]

Soap Operas In Depth Digest?

[dragonflies]

The site looks so much better, not as laggy and slow

[janea4old]

Y&R is always fictionally doing mergers and acquisitions of media companies.
And now here we are in real life. That press release is dry reading, but still more interesting than some of fictional Y&R.

It seems that McClatchy newspapers and A360 were both already owned by Chatham Asset Management, so it was fairly easy to get approval for that 2024 media merger.

[j swift]

In similar news, McClatchy Media Company are shuttering and laying off their entire staffs. In Touch, Life & Style, Closer and First for Women are ceasing operation by the end of June, the parent company informed staffers Friday. -- per The Wrap

Edited 21 hours ago by j swift

[janea4old]

Thanks for that info!  I see that TheWrap got it from HollywoodReporter (Link) which adds more details.

Both "Woman's World" and "First for Women" sometimes had soaps interviews by Deanna Barnert, (Link) and (Link) . The most recent interview from May 30 with Kristian Alfonso has been added to the June 2025 Days spoiler thread.

Edited 20 hours ago by janea4old

[Errol]

It truly is the end of an era with celebrity gossip and entertainment print magazines. Only Us Weekly and PEOPLE seem to be able to sustain themselves these days.

Thanks for the tidbit.