Newsweek magazine up for sale

[sabra]

Source: MSNBC/AP

Washington Post Co. looking for a buyer for money-losing weekly

WASHINGTON - The Washington Post Co. is putting Newsweek up for sale in hopes that another owner can figure out how to stem losses at the 77-year-old weekly magazine.

While magazines in general have struggled with steep declines in advertising revenue because of the recession, news magazines such as Newsweek face the added pressures from up-to-the-second online news. Once handy digests of the week's events, they have been assailed by competitors on the Web that pump out a constant stream of news and commentary.

Despite staff cuts, Newsweek has remained a drag on its parent company, which is also struggling with ad declines at its namesake newspaper.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36962757/ns/business-media_biz/

[Warpy]

1. How to stem losses?

Dump the overpaid, stuffy, establishment conservatives, hire new staff with a fresh outlook and competent writing skills, turn yourself into a true alternative to all the other stuffy, establishment "news" mags.

The world is changing and anything that doesn't change with it is going to fail.

That being said, the one thing that will ensure a continued slide is cutting staff. People don't buy Newsweek for the damned ads. They buy it for the kind of content they can read in the can. They could go to cheaper paper, they could do a lot of things, but cutting staff and content are suicide.

Any smart publisher doesn't post web content from a current issue until the new issue is about to go on sale.

[pattmarty]

2. Hey Rupert, get out the checkbook!

[leveymg]

3. The whole industry's going down the tubes.

Broadcast news is still subsidized because it remains an effective form of propaganda for the huge multinationals that own the networks. The traditional print weeklies that don't have a real niche audience will go the way of Life and Look when color TV took their place as eye candy. The remaining news dailies are all on the endangered species list.

Pretty soon, news will be what you make of it on-line, but even that experience will be controlled by the big cable and ISPs who will charge whatever they want, and block whatever they want, after the Obama Administration caves on Open Internet.

[Sherman A1]

4. I gave up on Newsweek several years ago.

The the page count dropped, the format changed and it lost me as a reader.

[high density]

5. How about liquidation?

That will end the losses.

[Dulcinea]

6. What about online-only?

Most people get their news online anyway.

[thesquanderer]

8. where most people get their news?

re: "Most people get their news online anyway."

Do you have a reference? The last data I saw was 70% got their news mainly from TV, only 40% largely from the internet. But that survey was from 2008.

[on point]

7. Predictable result for another American Pravda

I don't know. We kept dumbing down the magazine, we reduced our coverage, we put empty headed conservatives in charge of writing pablum for the masses, we stopped doing real analysis.

WHY DOESN'T ANYONE WANT TO READ US ANYMORE?????

[mitchum]

9. Blacksmith seeks buyer for once-thriving business

[truthisfreedom]

10. Print is dead. What can be done?

[NICO9000]

11. BREAKING: Cawston's Buggy Whips to buy Newsweek!

Company owner Ebeneezer Cawston tells DU, "This magazine business looks like it just might be the future and I want to make sure I get in on the ground floor."

:sarcasm:

I got a 5-year sub to this POS years ago for $99 and foolishly thought it was a good deal. Since I've been a Nation subscriber for over 20 years, I figured I should get at least a glimpse of the spew the MSM was pushing during the Bush years (why I thought I needed that is a mystery to me these days.) At any rate, when they re-did the format a year or so ago, I laughed at what a crappy redesign it was and you know it probably cost them 6-7 figures to help ruin their "brand." It's only a matter of time before they get thrown on the scrap heap of history and I'll bet Time follows them.

I do love me some magazines though. We have subs to waaay too many of 'em, but we make sure that we get dirt cheap prices on them if we're going to take out a sub. The only ones I pay higher prices for are my beloved UK music mags Mojo and Classic Rock and those are still cheaper than the average $11 an issue cost of buying them at the newsstand every month.