As has been pointed out, this didn't have to be an either/or decision by WotC.
In fact, there are many hard publications that have 100% of their content available in electronic form. Guitar Player Magazine (and all of its sister publications), The Economist, The NY Times, The New Orleans Times-Picayune and others all have managed to have a digital form while simultaneously continuing publication in their traditional print & paper forms.
By killing the print mags this way, they've lost a lot of subscribers that they didn't have to.