Newsweek's hazy future (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

Washington Post ^ | May 6, 2010 | Howard Kurtz

[abb]

Can Newsweek magazine survive?

The answer is that no one, including the people who work there, knows for sure.

With yesterday's bombshell announcement that The Washington Post Co. is putting the magazine up for sale, Time remains the last newsmagazine standing. U.S. News & World Report has long since gotten out of the print weekly business.

Now a perfectly fine buyer may emerge, but it seems a foregone conclusion that Newsweek at best will be a shriveled version of its former self. In fact, some people think that's already the case.

Don Graham, the Post Co. chief executive, told me it was a difficult decision to sell the magazine that his father acquired in 1961 -- the sale was brokered by Ben Bradlee, then JFK's pal and Newsweek's Washington bureau chief -- but harder, obviously, for the people who work there.

Bradlee told me last night: "I hate to see any change because I was so involved with Newsweek. I loved it. It gave me my first shot. It was a great magazine. It is a great magazine."

But, he added, "nobody says you have to keep a magazine that is costing an arm and a leg. I understand why Don put it on the market. Someone's going to run it, I think."

Almost exactly one year ago, Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham was telling me that deliberately cutting its circulation in half -- from what had been a high of 3.1 million to 1.5 million -- would not destroy the money-losing magazine. He and his staff had decided to go upscale. The question, he said, involved advertisers: "Will they accept a more affluent Newsweek demographic, given that they've been acculturated all these years to think of us as a mass vehicle?" The answer is now apparent.

snip

[abb]

Howard, moaning and chewing on his hands, feeling sorry for hisself this morning...

[abb]

ping

[junta]

Like the Chicago Trib their business model is calling their readership “racist” and then expecting them to pay for ever increasing subscription rates.

[mlocher]

But, he added, "... Someone's going to run it ..."

into the ground.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Take the buyout.

[mlocher]

Like the Chicago Trib their business model is calling their readership “racist” and then expecting them to pay for ever increasing subscription rates.

Paying to be insulted brings out the masochist in me too.

[abb]

http://paidcontent.org/article/419-don-graham-on-newsweek-well-get-a-buyer/
Don Graham On Newsweek: ‘We’ll Get A Buyer’

http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2010/05/05/reasons-to-buy-newsweek/
Reasons to buy Newsweek

http://www.observer.com/2010/media/newsweek-henry-blodget-keep-your-dollar
Newsweek to Henry Blodget: Keep Your Dollar

http://www.slate.com/id/2253075/
Newsweek Has Fallen Down and Can’t Get Up

http://www.businessinsider.com/jon-meacham-on-the-daily-show-2010-5
Newsweek’s Jon Meacham On ‘The Daily Show’: It’s Time To Flip The Switch From Print To Digital

http://ocbiz.freedomblogging.com/2010/05/05/freedom-communications-not-for-sale/18683/
Freedom Communications ‘not for sale’

http://ocbiz.freedomblogging.com/2010/05/05/freedom-communications-former-board-sued-for-180-million/18735/
Freedom Communications’ former board sued for $180 million

[Richard Kimball]

Weird thing is they have something like 400 employees. How many people does it take to put out that ten page weekly pamphlet?

[equalitybeforethelaw]

Gee, what will do without NEWSWEAK?

[Buckeye McFrog]

Newseek’s future? The same as Look, Life, The Saturday Evening Post, and that women’s rag that Rosie O’Donnell tanked

[GeronL]

Well, like I said. Bloomberg bought BusinessWeek, why not Newspeak?

[GeronL]

When Newsweak basically said they were going to stop doing news and basically be propaganda for the left a couple of years ago, I think we all saw this coming.

[libertarian27]

Newsweak is too big to fail!
What will I read at the Dentist office if they fail?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Newsweek will become a quarterly picture mag, sold at the grocery checkout isle. Maybe not even quarterly.

[Brett66]

They need to focus on Bigfoot and UFO stories, because their political reporting is less believable.

They need to do everyone a favor and die, go away Newsweak.

[I cannot think of a name]

I don't guess that editorially moving to the left of Stalin has anything to do with it?

[VeniVidiVici]

[xp38]

ah newsweak is getting weaker weaker...

[Zakeet]

[Red Badger]

Can Newsweek magazine survive?

Since liberals like darwinism so much, no. It's survival of the fittest. Law of the jungle. Adapt or die. If you become unnecessary, you perish.............