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Newsweek Editor: Woo Hoo! Our Magazine Circulation Is Being Cut in Half!!!
NewsBusters ^ | May 18, 2009 | P.J. Gladnick

Posted on 05/18/2009 7:31:42 AM PDT by 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."


(Excerpt) Read more at newsbusters.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: howardkurtz; jonmeacham; newsweak; newsweek; newsweekdeathwatch; partisanpress; pravdamedia
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To: PJ-Comix
Pay no attention to the icebergs.


41 posted on 05/18/2009 8:08:02 AM PDT by smokingfrog ( Don't mess with the mockingbird! /\/\ http://tiny.cc/freepthis)
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To: PJ-Comix

His plan (when you read the actual article) has some logic behind it, but it is based upon a false premise.

Basicly, he wants to be a premium news magazine. He plans on making money on subscriptions as well as advertising.

Instead of selling 3 million mag at $3 (9 mill a month), he’ll sell 1.5 million at $5 (7.5 mill a month). Since his printing costs will be halfed, he’ll probably net more profit out of the 7.5 mill than the 9 mill.)

He probably figures he can maintain his advertising rates by saying his new readers have more upscale and have more disposable income (because they are willing to spend more on a premium news magazine.)

What he forgets about is competition. What is going to differentiate Newsweek from its competition to the point that customers are willing to shell out more money for it?

This reminds me of the Cable ad where they guy (with the inferior product) says “we’ll target people with more disposable income and let them dispose of their income to us.”


42 posted on 05/18/2009 8:10:20 AM PDT by Brookhaven (Democrats = The National Socialists Party USA)
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To: GQuagmire

I bet that all the free copies they sent to doctors and dentists, are the half they are cutting .


43 posted on 05/18/2009 8:12:54 AM PDT by razorback-bert (We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.)
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To: 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.”

Quote of the tread. Sums up what they are doing.


44 posted on 05/18/2009 8:12:56 AM PDT by Brookhaven (Democrats = The National Socialists Party USA)
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To: PJ-Comix

I remember back in ‘94 when I used to subscribe to Time. In one issue they stated they would no longer just be reporting the news but would be ‘interpreting’ the news as well. I cancelled my subscription that night.

That was about the time I cancelled my subscription to “Money” as well. They had an article ‘interpreting’ what HillaryCare would mean to me. Not one mention about reduced services or increased taxes, just page after page of talk about how great it would be for the government to pay for free health care for everyone.

These news magazines, the rest of the media, and their reporters have been captured by big government. All they do is recycle government press releases. Not a smidgen of honest reporting and investigation. Even their ‘investigations’ of Republicans are written by the DNC.


45 posted on 05/18/2009 8:13:48 AM PDT by DugwayDuke
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To: Brookhaven

He wants to become the ‘Esquire’ of news mags. Good luck.


46 posted on 05/18/2009 8:14:10 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: bigbob
Hastening the inevitable...Meacham is a loon.

Yes, but he expects us to think of them as 'intellectuals' and us as those darn stupid 'rednecks'. I guess he just proved who is smarter. At least, most of us know cutting your subscribers in half and increasing prices is not good business practice unless you are planning on going out of business.

47 posted on 05/18/2009 8:25:51 AM PDT by kcvl
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To: Lancey Howard

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

I suspect that most copies of Newsweek and Time are sent to dead senior citizens whose families haven’t bothered to cancel the subscription.


48 posted on 05/18/2009 8:35:28 AM PDT by Hacklehead (Liberalism is the art of taking what works, breaking it, and then blaming conservatives.)
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To: PJ-Comix

When they cease to go after certain markets (like middle America) they no longer have to pretend to support the religious tradition in America or to give a Rat’s a$$ about what a conservative might’ve said. When you go niche market, you can play up to the liberal mindset and raise the cover price like it was the New Yorker or Atlantic Monthly.

Newsweak. Now more than ever.


49 posted on 05/18/2009 9:01:50 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (If you like the Dept. of Motor Vehicles, the IRS, and the Post Office, you'll love govt Health Care)
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To: MNDude
I thought it was ironic coming from a dLying source of media.
50 posted on 05/18/2009 9:04:19 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (If you like the Dept. of Motor Vehicles, the IRS, and the Post Office, you'll love govt Health Care)
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To: PJ-Comix

“It’s hugely counterintuitive...”

Whenever someone uses this term what follows is magical-thinking, wishful-thinking, a lie, an outlandish lie, or a damned lie.


51 posted on 05/18/2009 9:13:25 AM PDT by mdk1960
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To: CHEE
I doubt if Playboy would go over very well.

Maybe a swimsuit issue?...

52 posted on 05/18/2009 9:21:13 AM PDT by Kowdawg
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To: PJ-Comix

Love Newsbusters.

Great story. Just shows that the idiots are running the asylum.


53 posted on 05/18/2009 9:27:16 AM PDT by CriticalJ
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To: PJ-Comix
The new layout, with larger photographs, splits each issue into four parts: Scope (News, Scoops and the Globe at a Glance); Features; The Take (What We Think [You Should Think] About the World); and The Culture.

Just a point of clarification for ya Peej.

54 posted on 05/18/2009 9:46:49 AM PDT by Cletus.D.Yokel (FreepMail me if you want on the Bourbon ping list!)
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To: WKUHilltopper

Or...JOhn Bobbet


55 posted on 05/18/2009 9:47:36 AM PDT by Cletus.D.Yokel (FreepMail me if you want on the Bourbon ping list!)
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To: Brookhaven
he wants to be a premium news magazine

Like The New Yorker? Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha

56 posted on 05/18/2009 9:54:12 AM PDT by Cletus.D.Yokel (FreepMail me if you want on the Bourbon ping list!)
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To: PJ-Comix
Didn't The Atlantic try this a few years ago, or am I remembering the wrong mag? The idea was not to renew certain subscribers so they could tell advertisers that only the monied elite got the mag, changing their target demographic or some such marketing stunt.

Guys, it's newsprint, not diamonds. Less isn't more.

57 posted on 05/18/2009 10:02:59 AM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: madinmadtown; Freee-dame

<<< My larger point is that we are rapidly seeing an even smaller number of options available for news. >>>

####

This is very disturbing. Yesterday, a man told me that he had been terrified that Bush was planning to take away his Social Security check. This was an otherwise intelligent professional person who obviously believed what he read in the Baltimore SUN and heard on NPR.

I don’t spend too much time around people who place their highest priority on ‘social justice’ so I was not prepared for his comment, which came out of the blue. I hope my face did not register my shock and surprise when he said this.

We have to find a way to reach these people with some actual facts.


58 posted on 05/18/2009 10:04:52 AM PDT by maica (Politics is not about facts. it is about what politicians can get people to believe. - Thomas Sowell)
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To: maica
We have to find a way to reach these people with some actual facts.

Actual facts are anathema to the left.

59 posted on 05/18/2009 6:31:13 PM PDT by Freee-dame
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To: Billthedrill
Didn't The Atlantic try this a few years ago, or am I remembering the wrong mag? The idea was not to renew certain subscribers so they could tell advertisers that only the monied elite got the mag, changing their target demographic or some such marketing stunt.

That was the Saturday Evening Post, and that was circa the very late 1960s, very early 1970s. Say sometime 1968-1971.

And yes, the purpose was to change their demographics, so as to appeal to advertisers with a "higher class" sort of readership.

It didn't work. The Saturday Evening Post then shortly thereafter expired. There's still a Saturday Evening Post, I guess, but it has no connection with this former magazine, being mostly a "nostalgia" magazine.

60 posted on 05/18/2009 8:28:36 PM PDT by franksolich (Scourge of the Primitives, in service to humanity)
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