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Hi everyone! It's time again for my quarterly "What Are You Reading Now?" thread. As you know, I consider Freepers to be among the more well-read member of the cyber world. I like to find out what you're all reading. Essentially, it can be anything. A timeless classic, a trashy pulp novel, a technical journal, etc. In short, anything! Please do not ruin this thread by posting something stupid like "I'm Reading Your Thread". It became really really unfunny a long time ago. I'll start. I'm reading "Pendergast!" by Lawrence J Larsen and Nancy J Hulston. Written in 1997, it...

By most accounts, The Washington Post Co. promised to sell Newsweek to Sidney Harman last month largely because his bid promised to keep the most employees in place. The question of layoffs at the struggling magazine has since seemed more a matter of “when” than “if.” The future cleared up a little on Wednesday at a company meeting held by Harman and chief executive officer Tom Ascheim at the magazine’s Hudson Street offices. Staffers learned their new owner will retain 75 percent of the company’s employees, and that the entire workforce will receive letters on Sept. 24 containing either a...

SIERRA VISTA — A man attempting to illegally enter the United States at the Naco port of entry has been charged with assault after he kicked a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer in the face. The incident occurred Monday at about 8 p.m. when officers at the port of entry noticed a man trying to walk into the U.S. through the outbound pedestrian lane leading into Mexico, according to a release from the federal agency. When officers made their way towards the man, he began climbing a security fence to avoid capture. As they attempted to apprehend him, the...

As the Washington Post Company prepares to sell Newsweek to the most appealing bidder, it is closely examining an offer from Sidney Harman, the California billionaire who made his fortune selling audio equipment. According to three people with knowledge of the bidding process, at least two other parties remain in the mix: Fred Drasner, who was a part owner of the Washington Redskins and a publisher of The Daily News of New York, and Marc Lasry, a hedge fund owner and major Democratic Party donor. snip One person briefed on the bid said Mr. Harman would retain 250 employees and...

Can some FR members please include links on this thread of where to buy handgun magazines online? I would be most appreciative. Looking for Llama Minimax .45 6-round magazines. Thanks in advance.

Final bids are due at 5 p.m. ET Thursday in the Washington Post Company’s sale of Newsweek. A quick FAQ on where the process stands: Who’s in?>> Fred Drasner, the former owner of U.S. News & World Report who’s teamed with Fast Company co-founder Alan Webber and ex-Dow Jones Newswires president Paul Ingrassia on a joint bid for the struggling newsweekly. >> Sidney Harman, husband of Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), whose plan is to “keep Newsweek as a traditional newsmagazine.” >> OpenGate Capital, the company that in 2008 famously acquired TV Guide for $1.00, less than half the cost of...

A private-equity firm and a publisher of a right-wing magazine are among prospective buyers expected to enter the first round of bidding for Newsweek magazine. OpenGate Capital, the investment firm that owns TV Guide, plans to formally declare its interest in acquiring Newsweek before Wednesday's deadline for nonbinding bids, according to managing partner Andrew Nikou. Christopher Ruddy, publisher of the conservative monthly magazine Newsmax, said he also plans to bid. Thomson Reuters Corp. is unlikely to submit a letter of interest by next week's deadline, but the financial news and information company could partner on a bid later in the...

The Man Who Would Be Czar: Treasury Department's Chief Auto Industry Advisor Takes Pragmatic Approach to Saving GM and Chrysler ... Nevertheless, Wagoner's firing, or even that of his replacement, Fritz Henderson, under GM chairman and now CEO Ed Whitacre, serves as ammunition for critics of Obama's "socialist" handling of the economy and business. Bloom describes his involvement with GM, postbankruptcy, as much more arm's length, in keeping with Obama's insistence that the federal government wants to run no car companies.

Last year, Newsweek redesigned itself with an eye toward failure. Literally. The newsmagazine was getting itself out of the newsmagazine business and pursuing a higher-end market through a combination of news analysis and opinion. The idea behind the magazine’s redesign was to hasten its contraction from a circulation over 2 million to one around 1 million, while simultaneously raising the cover price. This was not, in and of itself, a silly idea. What Newsweek and its editor, Jon Meacham, were acknowledging is that the 2 million circulation was illusory, and that the actual readership of the magazine, with people...

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...

<p>Magazine ad pages fell 9.4 percent in the first quarter, to about 34,800 pages, the Publishers Information Bureau reported Thursday. The drop was in contrast to many publishers’s upbeat assessments about ad spending returning in the first quarter.</p> <p>The drop was all the more surprising since it was a decline from the first quarter of 2009, a terrible quarter for magazines, when ad pages fell by 25.9 percent to about 37,200.</p>

Hello everyone! It's time again for my quarterly "What Are You reading Now?" thread. I consider Freepers to be some of the more well-read people on the Internet and I'm always curious as to what you're all reading. In short, it can be anything - a classic novel, a NY Times best seller, a trashy pulp novel, a technical journal...in short, anything. Please do not defile this thread by posting something inane like "I'm reading this thread". It became really unfunny a long time ago. I'll start. I'm about 65 pages into "War Like The Thunderbolt: The Battle and Burning...

The ax-man rings twice! The second round of cuts got underway at Bloomberg BusinessWeek this morning, with about 30 people being trimmed from the business news weekly’s payroll. Roughly 20 will be given their walking papers — with the remainder being reassigned to the Bloomberg News operation, sources said. Departments hit hard by the swinging ax include editorial, photo and art. A BusinessWeek spokesman said: "As we prepare for the launch of Bloomberg BusinessWeek on April 23, we are more deeply integrating our editorial team with Bloomberg’s, one of the world’s largest news organizations. As a result, there are some...

We've been waiting for this: A study by Outsell, to be released Monday, reveals that U.S. advertisers are spending more this year on digital media than on print. Long predicted, this Madison Avenue milestone has finally arrived thanks to a 9.6% boom in digital advertising in 2010. That number comes from Outsell's annual advertising and marketing study, which collected data from 1,008 U.S. advertisers (both consumer and B2B) in December 2009. Of the $368 billion marketers plan to spend this year, 32.5% will go toward digital; 30.3% to print. Digital spending includes e-mail, video advertising, display ads and search marketing....

February may not be the cruelest month, but it wasn't especially nice for consumer magazines either, with monthly titles showing a 7.2% drop, according to the Media Industry Newsletter. On the other hand, that's a smaller decline than the double-digit losses which plagued the medium last year, and a slight improvement over January's 7.7% loss -- holding out hope that the magazine industry is finally approaching the bottom of its brutal downswing. Altogether, 83 titles or 55% of the total 152 titles tracked by MIN saw ad pages decline in February 2010 compared to February 2009. Of these, 31 titles...

Lindsey Vonn is hoping the Sports Illustrated cover jinx doesn't cross international borders. America's great Winter Olympic hope is featured on the front of SI's Winter Olympic preview issue, which hit newsstands Wednesday. Vonn's semi-provocative pose has drawn the predictable ire from those who claim that it objectifies her. She's an athlete, not a sex symbol, the chorus inevitably reminds us. They have a point in taking issue with SI; the magazine rarely features women athletes on the cover and its annual swimsuit issue has been a focus of protests for decades. But Vonn's cover is different.

OK, it's time for my quarterly What Are You Reading Now? survey. I do this because I like to gauge what Freepers are reading. I believe that the Freeper community are one of the more well-read on the Internet. What are you reading? It can be anything...a classic novel, a NY Times bestseller, a technical journal, a trashy pulp novel - in short, anything. Please do not defile this thread by replying "I'm Reading This Thread". It became unfunny a long time ago. I'll start. I'm reading "Pickett's Charge: A Microstudy" by George R Stewart. It was written in 1959...

Less than a year ago, during yet another public discussion about the future of traditional media, I said that it seemed extremely unlikely that, for instance, Newsweek would last another five years, provoking guffaws among blogger types and stout denials from the magazine (i.e. a minor kerfuffle). Newsweek and its parent, the Washington Post Co., announced yesterday a significant cut in its rate base, a further round of buyouts and layoffs, and a plan to make an already anorexic magazine even thinner. The Washington Post Co., for good measure, added its own bad news and bleak outlook. My prediction about...

The situation is dire when a 7.7% drop looks good. And that's where monthly magazines are in January, according to Media Industry Newsletter, which recently released ad page figures for the coming month's issues of about 115 monthlies. Of the 115 monthlies tracked by MIN in January, over half (62, or 54%) saw ad pages decline compared to January 2009. What's more, the losses were fairly top-heavy. While 17 of these titles (15% of the total), posted relatively modest declines of less than 10%, 15 (13%) experienced drops of 10%-20% and 30 (26%) tumbled over 20%. It's also noteworthy that...

The Army has begun fielding a new 5.56mm 30-round "improved magazine" that delivers a significant increase in reliability for M-16 and M-4 weapons. Bolstering the already high reliability ratings of the M-16 and M-4, the improved magazine reduces the risk of magazine-related stoppages by more than 50 percent compared to the older magazine variants, according to officials at Program Executive Office Soldier. Identified by a tan-colored follower, more than 500,000 of the improved magazines have been fielded to units in Iraq, Afghanistan and the United States. "With the improved magazines, we're taking weapons reliability up another notch," said Lt. Col....