Posted on 08/02/2010 3:00:49 PM PDT by Rufus2007
Although it's not clear if Sidney Harman made the best offer of the suitors vying to purchase Newsweek magazine, there is one reason that was made clear by Donald E. Graham, chairman of The Washington Post Co. (NYSE:WPO).
According to Mike Allen at Politico, Harman's bid was accepted by Graham partly because he felt comfortable with Harman's politics.
"Graham felt comfortable with Harman's centrist politics, and was comforted by the idea of selling to a stalwart of the Washington establishment," Allen wrote. "Harman is expected to preserve the serious-minded, essentially New-Democratic tone [outgoing Newsweek editor Jon] Meacham set for the magazine."
...more...
(Excerpt) Read more at newsbusters.org ...
Sidney doesn’t make the Forbes or Fortune billionaire list, so his net worth is difficult to quantify. His wife is often cited as one of the richest members of Congress with a fortune estimated at $112 million in 2009.
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Goldman and KKR agreed to acquire $400 million in Harman’s convertible debt in lieu of the take over deal. The conversion rate was $104-a-share, but Harman’s stock never recovered when it plunged to $85, the day the takeover deal was scuttled. It now trades at about $32-a-share.
But that’s been cleverly avoided. KKR and Goldman have agreed to buy about $400 million in Harman’s convertible debt. The conversion rate is $104, which means that there is hope that the stock will make a comeback (the current stock price is about $86).
I agree, and all of that works for me. That’s the thing about liberals - profit is NOT what’s most important.
Another way of looking at it is that Newsweak, as a medium of disinformation and propaganda, almost breaks even. A blog may be cheap, but is also doesn’t have a load of corporate advertisers that want to reach an audience of semi-literate fascist housewives and aging boomers paying for all that propaganda.
Harman’s got her own outlet now, and it almost pays for itself. Campaign propaganda is all outlay, and no income. Magazines, for now, at least have advertisers.
Say she actually tacks to the right a bit. Asks Limbaugh to write a column, then what? Can she break even? Who knows? I actually think there’s room in the market for a TRULY centrist magazine. Both right and left - all in the same magazine. Not like some pinko who gets paid to be the conservative correspondant for the Washington Compost.
Now if only WaPo would shut its doors permanantly......
It will be out of business way before she gets it. I give it another 12 to 18 months tops.
Yes his library consists of printed hardback copies of past Reader’s Digest dating back to the beginning.
Up until a year ago, certainly.
In 2009 they stopped trying to be a news magazine covering the week's events and turned themselves into an opinion magazine.
They'd been quite liberal for decades, but stopped pretending that they were nonpartisan or unbiased.
But maybe you're right and they never didn't quite say that they were unabashedly liberal.
They kept saying that they were going "upscale" and appealing to an "elite" readership.
They even claimed that losing subscribers was making them more selective.
There was massive self-delusion in their thinking they were a "serious-minded" magazine. The staff felt that they were all serious-minded, members of an elite, and more of their opinions and less facts would naturally make Newsweek more intellectual and serious-minded.
Does Harman know what he's getting into?
Considering that he paid $1 for the rag he probably knows the score.
But the real pricetag is the money that he's going to have to come up with out of his own pocket to keep the thing running.
He traded the paper for a new stereo and a vintage Lexicon 480L reverb processor.
So, they’re still not interested in sales (or truth)?
if this is the case, it’s still on the road to death.
I heard they held out for a set of Dahlquist Dq10 speakers and an old McIntosh 250 tube amp as well ... which means Harman overpaid for the rag...
Now that’s funny!
You're missing the point. The point of publications like Newsweek or the WashPost is not to generate a profit, it's to be a promoter of the Democrat agenda. As long as it's effective at that task, there will be a new buyer for it.
Think of the three years or so that this guy will be paying the deficit as an unreported contribution to the Democrat party. He will be reimbursed by his investments being looked after, by the lawmakers who ensure what companies do well, and what companies don't.
There, fixed it.
His wife is further right than he is.
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