'Newsweek' to Cut 500,000 From Rate Base (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

AdvertisingAge ^ | November 1 2007 | Nat Ives

[Milhous]

Circulation Guarantee to Advertisers Dropped to 2.6M

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Newsweek's new management plans to chop its guaranteed paid circulation by 500,000 copies, dropping its promise to advertisers down to 2.6 million paying readers from 3.1 million, those with knowledge of the move said today.

Newsweek cited rising postal and other costs in explaining its decision to cut its rate base.

The 16% cutback is one of the largest among a series at big magazines over the last few years, a sweep that has seen ambitions reduced at diverse titles including Playboy, Reader's Digest, Star, Woman's Day and BusinessWeek.

Race against Time
But Newsweek's move is particularly notable amid its battle against Time, which slashed its own rate base to 3.25 million from 4 million at the beginning of the year. It's also the first big development since Newsweek shook up its executive suite on Tuesday, when it named a longtime Viacom cable executive, Thomas E. Ascheim, to take over as CEO and promoted Gregory Osberg from publisher to president.

Newsweek cited rising postal and other costs in explaining its decision, according to a media buyer who has been briefed on the plan. "Obviously people are also migrating online for news and information," said the buyer. "It's hard to maintain current subscribers and attract new subscribers."

"That said, newsweekly brands are still powerful, given that they provide credible, fact-based journalism," the buyer added. "What will change is the delivery of this content."

Newsweek has reported average paid circulation of 3.14 million copies during the first half of 2007, down a slim 0.1% from the first half of 2006, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Ad pages from January through the issue dated Oct. 29 this year have fallen 6.4% from the equivalent period in 2006, according to the Media Industry Newsletter.

A spokeswoman for Newsweek was unable to immediately confirm the news or provide comment.

[Milhous]

Yet another hit for the Washington Post Company, arguably the financially strongest among its socialist mass media peers (CBS, NBC, NYT, and TWX).

[Petronski]

[Milhous]

ping

[pissant]

I have not seen your partner in crime as of late, ABB

[Enchante]

"newsweekly brands are still powerful, given that they provide credible, fact-based journalism"

LOL. That's very far from a 'given' -- in fact Newsweak is a good example of a biased leftist hack-fest lacking credibility, and unworthy of being regarded as an objective new magazine. Compared to Mother Jones it may seem like Newsweak is respectable, but they are full of plenty of hack pieces spouting leftist propaganda.

[Lexington Green]

Propaganda getting harder to sell.

[Tall_Texan]

...throwing a few more deck chairs off the Titanic...

[martin_fierro]

Newsweek's new management plans to chop its guaranteed paid circulation by 500,000 copies, dropping its promise to advertisers down to 2.6 million paying readers from 3.1 million, those with knowledge of the move said today.

Unfortunate choice of words.

[dynachrome]

“newsweekly brands are still powerful, given that they provide credible, fact-based journalism,”

ROFL!

[Reagan is King]

That said, newsweekly brands are still powerful, given that they provide credible, fact-based journalism,

I hope he was rolling on the floor laughing when he said that. Liberal agenda driven journalism is more like it.

[Milhous]

abb posted the first bit of bad news for the Washington Post Company earlier today:

Washington Post 3rd-Quarter Profit Drops

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“A spokeswoman for Newsweek was unable to immediately provide comment...”

Until s/he reads tomorrow morning’s ‘DNC Talking Points.’ :)

[pissant]

Good to see. You guys monitor the death of the media, and Borges monitors anyone else who kicks the bucket. LOL

[eureka!]

What a warm, fuzzy schadenfreudian feeling this post brought me. Thanks for posting.

[Newtoidaho]

Or, possibly was cleaning out her desk due to being laid off.

[Disambiguator]

Willy Wonka the axe murderer?

What movie is that from?

[AD from SpringBay]

It’s good news to be sure. They are becoming a marginalized publication.

[Freee-dame]

credible, fact-based journalism

HaHaHaHa

[bruinbirdman]

""newsweekly brands are still powerful, given that they provide credible, fact-based journalism" "

Newsweek was so fact-based it lied about having 17% more readers than it did.

yitbos