Newsweek magazine up for sale

Zak Malang · 2010-05-05T19:31:00+00:00

Newsweek magazine up for sale * Washington Post puts famous news magazine up for sale after failing to stem heavy losses The struggling current affairs magazine Newsweek has been put up for sale by its owner, the Washington Post Company, after efforts to slim down and refocus the publication failed to stem heavy losses. The Washington Post's publisher, which has owned Newsweek since 1961, announced today that it was calling in an investment bank, Allen & Company, to seek a buyer for the magazine. The proposed sale is a sign of the ongoing difficulties felt across the print media industry as advertising remains sluggish and readers migrate to the internet. "Despite heroic efforts on the part of Newsweek's management and staff, we expect it to still lose money in 2010. We are exploring all options to fix that problem," said the company's chairman, Donald Graham. "Newsweek is a lively, important magazine and website, and in the current climate, it might be a better fit elsewhere." The group's magazines division, which includes Newsweek, suffered an operating loss of $29.3m (£19m) last year and $16.1m in 2008. The group took a series of steps last year to try to revive the publication by shifting its focus from breaking news to provocative, often left-leaning, issues and commentary. In an interview last year, Newsweek's editor, Jon Meacham, told the New York Times: "If we don't have something original to say, we won't. The drill of chasing the week's news to add a couple of hard-fought new details is not sustainable." In an effort to reduce Newsweek to a more manageable size, the publisher deliberately cut its circulation, which had been as high as 3.1m per week, to 1.5m by raising cover prices and ending deep discounts on renewals. During 2009, some 44 Newsweek employees accepted voluntary redundancy packages. A stalwart on newstands in the US and around the world, Newsweek was founded in 1933 by Thomas Martyn, a former foreign editor at Time magazine, with a cover price of 10 cents per copy. The magazine has been a longstanding rival of Time and of the London-based Economist. Source: The Guardian of London

Thread starter Zak Malang
Start date May 5, 2010

Zak Malang

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Newsweek magazine up for sale

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