Why haven't they dropped the Awake already? It could be easily done with the excuse that they need to focus on the Watchtower magazine now that it is printed in various versions. But they didn't drop it when they chose to print the Watchtower monthly instead of fortnightly. It is interesting to speculate as to why they didn't
One reason may be that we know how very proud they can be and to drop the Awake would be a bit of an embarassment. It is also a good way of using some of their good bethel writers who aren't of the anointed and can be allocated airy fairy topics without too much control.
The other problem that dropping it would mean they have to concentrate more of their efforts on the actual 'meaty' stuff and as they are not very imaginative these days it is a hard task for them. They couldn't even produce a substantive book this year.
If they drop a magazine, I believe it will be the public Watchtower. The 'downsizing' would be too psychologically depressing to completely shut down the Awake magazine, which has been printed essentially since 1919. They would just offer the dumbed-down Awake with a smattering of Bible articles with a majority of articles about natural disasters, Swiss cheese, and maybe a Young People Ask article here and there. The Watchtower would become a members-only magazine. It seems kind of silly to have two 'editions' of the Watchtower for two completely different audiences, the more I think about it.