Newsweek to Cut Back Staff, Slim Magazine in Makeover

[question everything]

DECEMBER 11, 2008

Newsweek to Cut Back Staff, Slim Magazine in Makeover
By RUSSELL ADAMS and SHIRA OVIDE
WSJ

Newsweek magazine is planning staff cuts as part of a major makeover that is likely to result in a slimmer publication with fewer subscribers and more photos and opinion inside its pages, according to people close to the magazine. The Washington Post Co. business is expected to outline the cuts Thursday in two companywide meetings. They will come from an extension of voluntary buyouts offered in the spring, when Newsweek shed 111 jobs. It isn't clear how many jobs will be eliminated this time, though it won't be nearly as many, say people with knowledge of the plan.

As it continues its shift away from news gathering toward a more provocative, idea-driven editorial approach, Newsweek is also considering other dramatic changes, including significantly reducing its rate base -- the number of weekly copies it promises advertisers it will deliver.

(snip)

Recently, Newsweek has emphasized commentary on hot-button issues, such as gay marriage, by big-name journalists like editor Jon Meacham and international editor Fareed Zakaria, as well as contributions from political operatives and academics like Michael Beschloss and Sean Wilentz. Newsweek is seeking in part to mirror publications like the Economist, which has thrived in a tough market by focusing less on costly news gathering than on driving discussion of the day's issues. Mr. Meacham said recently that Newsweek has never been an objective summarizer of the week's events, or "AP on nicer paper," though he acknowledged a greater emphasis lately on editorializing. "We are trying to be more provocative," he said.

This week's cover story, "The Religious Case for Gay Marriage," is a case in point. The story spawned an organized campaign to get readers to cancel their subscriptions and elicited so many angry emails that Newsweek Chief Executive Tom Ascheim had to open a new email account to handle the added volume, a company spokesman said.

(snip)



http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122896472309497261.html (subscription)

[Hardrada]

1. Soon people will be getting their news in comic books.

If they "read" at all.

[DJ13]

2. I hate it when magazines stop trying to provide an improved product

Slimmer always equals less magazine for the same money, and if Im not a subscriber its a real turnoff on the newsstand.

For once I would like to see a magazine actually increase their size as an incentive to buy it (or subscribe).

[eilen]

3. Did you see RollingStone magazine? It's tiny. nt

[question everything]

4. I canceled my subscription to Newsweek or, rather, let the subscription expire

precisely because they chose to stop gathering news and to offer, instead, "provocative" ideas.

It started with their January coronation of Obama after he won the Iowa caucuses, an issue that arrived the day of the New Hampshire primaries. All throughout the year they were going after Hillary and Bill, even after the primaries were over. Their reporters appeared on Olbermann trashing Hillary there, too. And then Jonathan Alter who "admitted" that, born in the mid 50s, he felt like a "step generation" to the baby boomers and expressed his hatred (and jealousy) to the older boomers as symbolized by the Clintons (and Al Gore).

I really was going to cancel the subscription but instead let it expired a few months ago. I still get offers for really cheap rates but a few weeks ago the editor, Meacham, was on the Daily Show to promote his book and inserted "Clinton" into his narrative, and I turned the show off.

So I am glad that they are losing subscribers. Yes, there are many who hate the Clintons as much as they do, but they do not subscribe to the print issues but read everything online.