TIME Magazine’s Last Chapter

[marmar]

from 24/7WallStreet:



TIME Magazine’s Last Chapter
Posted: May 31, 2012 at 6:25 am


TIME magazine, the last of the large weekly news and business publications, will not last in its current form for more than another year or so. A growing mountain of evidence shows TIME will have to cut its publication frequency, lower its subscription base or migrate almost entirely to the Internet.

TIME is the last of the weeklies that were among the most prominent magazines from World War II through the 1990s. T
IME, as a matter of fact, was probably the most influential magazine in America after Life magazine closed in 1972, until its position was taken by 24-hour news channels and the nearly universal availability of quality news on the Internet.

Other large weeklies have already surrendered. Newsweek was sold to billionaire Sidney Harman, who died months later. He agreed to combine the magazine and its web operations with the online news, gossip and opinion site The Daily Beast. Newsweek’s parent, the Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO), had been a champion of high-quality journalism for years. But it was not willing to underwrite millions of dollars in losses. Newsweek has not flourished in combination with The Daily Beast. It remains pamphlet thin and continues to be battered by the minute-by-minute news cycle. To attract subscribers, Newsweek offers deals, which cost new customers only 64 cents an issue.

Another of the most important weeklies of the last century, Businessweek, probably would have been shuttered by parent McGraw-Hill (NYSE: MHP), which owned it since it was founded in 1929. Trading terminal company Bloomberg bought the magazine, which it renamed Bloomberg Businessweek, and its web operations late in 2009 for what was rumored to be between $2 million and $5 million plus liabilities. Businessweek.com is little more than an offshoot of the Bloomberg news machine and its web operations. It is impossible to tell from the outside how the print business has done. But like other weeklies that used to be well over 100 pages thick — and more than that at year end — it has no more than a few dozen news pages per issue. Subscription offers give discounts of as much as 85% off the magazine’s newsstand price. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://247wallst.com/2012/05/31/time-magazines-last-chapter/#ixzz1wS7JfRKf

[hlthe2b]

1. You know, the mags that I guess are doing ok, are (naturally) the celebrity driven rags like People,

US weekly, and the whole ilck.

It seems to me if I were trying to keep an actual News magazine going, maybe the model would be to come together with, say, People for a joint publication. Let it be People on the front and Time on the back or some such. I'm sure that thought would be grating for those in the actual "news" biz, but I could actually see it working and saving both lots of money. And, who knows... some who would only buy for the celebrity BS might actually peruse the news in the rest of the issue.

[mainstreetonce]

2. Time was my father's favorite weekly read

He lamented the fact that Time had become more of an entertainment rag than a real news magazine.
My father died in 1981.

[KharmaTrain]

3. Sign Of The Times...

It's the same problem with newspapers. Someone posted on here that use of internet bandwidth will triple in the next three years...fueled by people with smartphones, notepads and kindle-type devices. The paper magazine is going the way of the vinyl album and the VCR...as newer, faster technology is replacing it. The challenge for Time is to adjust to this new marketplace.

In the 90s I got three weekly magazines: Time, Newsweak and US Snooze. Today I have a literal resource room at my fingertips...thanks to the many here who post the latest news

[Auggie]

4. I still like the printed periodical

though it's support (in lieu of electronic technologies and distribution) is hard to justify given its large carbon footprint.

[goclark]

5. Can't I get them on my Kindle Fire

I get USA Today etc.

Some books/newspapers too I think.... I can get for free with my county Library Card.

I visited the Library a week ago and I was in awe of the jewels they provide....