Newsweek Editor: Woo Hoo! Our Magazine Circulation Is Being Cut in Half!!!

NewsBusters ^ | May 18, 2009 | P.J. Gladnick

[PJ-Comix]

"Hey Dad! Great news! My report card grades are half of what they were last term!"

And just before my father would have smacked me upside my head for being so absurd, I would have quickly pointed out that the editor of Newsweek, Jon Meacham, is celebrating the fact that his magazine's circulation is being cut in half. Of course, back when I was a kid Newsweek at least made an attempt to be balanced and no magazine editor in his right mind would have been happy about such a drastic decline in circulation. However, that is exactly what Meacham is doing as reported in the Washington Post by Howard Kurtz:

Jon Meacham admits it is hard to explain, even to his own people, why chopping Newsweek's circulation in half is a good thing.

"It's hugely counterintuitive," the magazine's editor says. "The staff doesn't understand it."

[italianquaker]

I guess people who were just laid off are lucky because they dont have to commute anymore per newsweaks logic

[GQuagmire]

What will all those doctor and dentist offices do without Newsweak in their waiting rooms?

[theDentist]

Everything upside down to favor this Administration.

"We're cutting circulation! Woo Hoo!"
"We're closing 1/3rd of our Dealerships! Way to Go!!"
"The IRS is hiring more auditors in advance of 2010!! Lucky you!!!"
"The Gov't is going to prevent management from getting bonuses that they contractually earned. Ha ha ha!"
"They're even going to decide how much a salary can be!"
"Obama is looking into taking away for 401K savings for a Gov't sponsored retirement program!"
"Under new Health Plans, the elderly who aren't working and contributing to society won't get the medicines that workers should have, so there!!"

Unbelievable.

[KarlInOhio]

If they double the subscription price and get half the subscribers they will break even - if you aren't counting the advertising. If the per copy advertising rate stays the same they will not come close to breaking even.

[capydick]

"The staff doesn't understand it."

OH! Only if the staff and rest of us were as smart as Mr. Meachem, only then would we be able to see the greatness of his thinking.

I've always found him to be arrogant and above it all - this statement verifies my opinion.

[Buddygirl]

I tell you, this is so counter to what was taught to me in school... but it is like what someone said (the Bible?)...yes shall mean no, evil is good, good is evil, when one should be sad, he is jubliant over evil, etc.

The world has gone mad; it doesn’t make sense anymore...

[gov_bean_ counter]

Has anybody bothered to ask him how he feels about closing all those Chrysler dealerships????

[ak267]

Dinosaur Media Deathwatch Ping !!!!

[Hacklehead]

Spinal Tap meets Newsweek. In the movie when asked about why the band has been losing fans and playing in smaller and smaller arenas, the manager replies that they are appealing to a more selective audience.

[cpdiii]

Jon Meacham admits it is hard to explain, even to his own people, why chopping Newsweek's circulation in half is a good thing. "It's hugely counter intuitive," the magazine's editor says. "The staff doesn't understand it."

I do not know what this boy is smoking, but I do know it is high quality stuff.

Note to Newsweek staff, there are two accent marks in in the word re'sume' and the companies that "might" hire you do not know what the word "Vitae" means.

[cbkaty]

I guess I understand...

1/2 a beer, 1/2 a plate of nachos, 1/2 a watermelon, makes sense to me..../s

[CHEE]

What will all those doctor and dentist offices do without Newsweak in their waiting rooms?
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If they are smart they will offer Road and Track and Horse and Rider. I doubt if Playboy would go over very well.

[bigbob]

Hastening the inevitable...Meacham is a loon.

[gov_bean_ counter]

What will all those doctor and dentist offices do without Newsweak in their waiting rooms?

This will be a huge blow to the dentists who practice
sedation dentistry.

[GQuagmire]

I doubt if Playboy would go over very well.

If he could get away with it, my dentist would offer it.

[Arrowhead1952]

Ah’m ah gessin them there lies ain’t sellin so good.....

[Tribune7]

As newspapers lost circ in the 90s their profitability went way up. Why? It cost a lot, lot less to print and distribute 450,000 papers a day than 550,000, and if advertising holds steady and rates don't drop (or cough, cough are increased) one has a seriously nice business plan.

For those who don't know, subscription fees and newsstands generally don't cover the cost of newsprint & delivery.

[Lancey Howard]

Newsweak loses a huge piece of its subscription base every time a barber shop or orthodontist cancels.

[MNDude]

I saw the latest Time magazine with a picture of the Republican elephant on front and it said “endangered species”. I thought it was ironic coming from a dying source of media.

[madinmadtown]

In some ways this self-destructive behavior on the part of the old media is so outrageous that one has to wonder if it isn't orchestrated. As Newspeak raises its cover price to a dollar more than Time, and as the article points out was not bought at the lower price, it is suicide....an intentional death so that there will be only one national newsmagazine left. US News is now essentially an on-line only entity. Time will be the only national news magazine. A totalitarian regime would be proud of that accomplishment.
We conservatives are happy to see the death of our foes in the liberal news, but there is another side to this and it is that we are left with a single news model such as Pravda. “Truth” will be very Orwellian, not that it hasn't already occurred in the old main stream news. The fact that there has not been real competition between Newsweek and Time for at least a decade is something that should have alarmed us a long time ago. The free market model that used to exist between those two rival magazines kept them vital. While in the last twenty years, conservatives have left their active readership, they have continued to support them marginally by taking advantage of the professional subscriptions and leaving them as afterthoughts in waiting rooms and lobbies, partly out of tradition (conservatives will do that}.
My larger point is that we are rapidly seeing an even smaller number of options available for news. Obama’s destruction of the automobile industry in America will be devastating on smalltown newspapers which have relied heavily on car dealerships for revenue. Small towns are looking at the closure of car dealerships as a crisis because in some places the taxes on the sale of autos has been the main source of funding for their towns.
The Internet has given us a great compilation of the news, but many of the sites are not news gathering resources. They are sites where news is compiled, not reported. There is a difference. And while Newspeak has itself not been a source of news for at least a decade, its demise should give us some reason for pause.