The resurrection of Newsweek has been announced. At least that’s what Tina Brown, the editor-inchief of both Newsweek and The Daily Beast, the online news site that was combined with the magazine last year, will have us believe. For, on December 31, 2012, Newsweek will see its last issue in physical form, post which the magazine will go completely online.
Newsweek was launched on February 17, 1933. The inaugural cover was a statement about the future, comprising seven photographs - the dominant one being of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi flags. Soon, Newsweek became a carrier of news from the ‘American Way of Life’, sparking debates and discussions, bringing news that set the trend for the rest of the US media to follow up.
Given its date of birth, Newsweek will be yanked off the stands less than two months short of its 80th birthday. The online avatar, insiders say, will be rechristened Newsweek Global. As the plan goes, and as Brown has revealed to her staff, Newsweek Global will be supported by paid subscriptions, with content available for e-readers, tablets and the web, with some content also available on The Daily Beast.
Call it a resurrection or demise, Newsweek is out – the fact that the iconic magazine is giving in to virtual pressure cannot be missed. Brown herself said, citing an American think-tank Pew Research Survey, that 39% of Americans get their news from an online source. And the percentage is continuously increasing, as it is projected that there will be 70 million computer tablet users by the end of 2012, up from 13 million just two years ago.
Does this signal, as Paul Gillin of the Newspaper Death Watch fame, says, “tectonic shifts taking place in the media world, changes that will ultimately destroy 95% of American major metropolitan newspapers”? Does this mean that more journalists will find themselves jobless after December 31?
Newsweek’s physical demise has nothing to do with the global downturn, perhaps the only link being that had the world not fallen on hard times, the death could have been postponed a little more. Newsweek’s circulation has been declining since the turn of the millennium – from 4 million, it has gone down to 1.5 million, as the US Audit Board of Circulations reveals. According to Publishers Information Bureau data, the magazine’s print advertising fell by over 70% from 2007 to 2011. Bloomberg says Newsweek will lose more than $40 million this year, and $23 million in 2013, despite the merger.
The Newsweek demise was announced on October 18-19. Six days later, Barry Dillar, chairman and Senior Executive of IAC/InterActiveCorp IAC, while saying that the move will “dramatically” cut costs, added, “There’s real enthusiasm for Newsweek Global on all digital platforms, but we have no stars in any of our eyes.”
That needs reading between the lines. For, no print edition means a loss of advertising revenue. At the same time, there’s only been a careful, slow rise in online circulation and advertising revenue. Newsweek has to ensure a sustaining sales and marketing model, where its site does not only attract but also has a lock-in with the audience. Picking up a magazine from the newsstand or having the magazine delivered at your doorstep is one thing while taking the time to log in to a site is another. Also, web content has mostly come free till now; a pay-model is likely to hurt the magazine’s sales further.
There’s a theory that Newsweek is going for a volume play. That would mean that the magazine’s a global online entity will have to address a wider readership. The result would mean that ‘serious journalism’ that Newsweek is known for will have to give way to the sexy, dumb-down and sensational. That in itself may be a twinedged sword, for those who swore by Newsweek will be reduced to swearing at it and vice versa. As for the job cuts, Newsweek has been categorical that the all-online shift will bring in the inevitable. Internationally.
As for the Indian media, the Newsweek saga does not affect it really, as Print here has shown no signs of dying down. But fear of a backlash remains. Journalists fear that Newsweek turning all-online is likely to send a wrong signal to Print media publishers here looking for more profits. “Back in 2008-2009, when the effects of the downturn had not even hit home, hundreds of journalists were made to leave in the name of the ghosts. It did not matter whether you were good or bad at your job. Ironically, in 2009, when Jet Airways wanted to cut 2,000 jobs, the media made sure Jet owner Naresh Goyal was not able to do that, even as it quietly retrenched journalists. “Not even a handful of journalists wrote about it and there was no fraternal sympathy or remorse as was seen in the media job cuts in the West,” says a senior journalist.
Now, what if Newsweek’s shift makes the publishers divert their complete attention online? What if Newsweek becomes just another ruse for job cuts in the name of the newfound online calibrations, the journalist wonders.
All one can tell Indian journalists is not to expect any sympathy from within, if it happens.
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