Ending 114 years of tradition, one of New Zealand's oldest journals will move entirely to the Web and cease paper publication next year.

The New Zealand Medical Journal will go entirely electronic before the middle of 2002, the New Zealand Medical Association announced on Monday. It's an ambitious survival plan for the journal, which has been operating at a considerable loss and cost to the association's members. New Zealand Medical Association Chairman Dr. John Adams said the journal has been hit by a slump in advertising revenues for several years now. The Web is the best chance for the journal's continued publication, Adams said. "This gives us a cost effective option for the future, ensuring that the medical profession in New Zealand continues to have the opportunity to publish its research in a peer reviewed New Zealand-based journal," he said. The New Zealand Medical Journal was first published in 1887.