Newsmax owner details plans for Newsweek bid (Ruddy gets a final laugh)

FT ^ | 06/04/10 | Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson

[TigerLikesRooster]

Newsmax owner details plans for Newsweek bid

By Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson in New York

Published: June 4 2010 17:59 | Last updated: June 5 2010 01:07

Newsweek could be profitable again if it makes better use of its circulation database to “upsell” readers to premium newsletters and other products, according to one bidder for the Washington Post Company’s loss-making magazine.

Christopher Ruddy, the owner of Newsmax, a magazine and website catering to US conservatives, told the Financial Times a day after he made an offer for Newsweek that he believed he could restore the 77-year-old title to positive cash flow.

Mr Ruddy would not say what he had offered in an auction where bidders are expected to offer only nominal sums, but assume large liabilities.

The title, whose revenues fell from $266m to $166m between 2007 and 2009, reported a $56m loss before pension credits last year and lost $29m on the same basis the year before. It is expected to lose about $20m this year.

[TigerLikesRooster]

I remember the time Chris Ruddy showed at the media scene covering Clinton shenanigans. Mike Wallace had a piece on him in '60 minutes.' IIRC, he pretty much turned Ruddy into an idiot. Talking about the excerpts from Ruddy's piece, he laughed at it, giggling.

To liberal media, Ruddy is well beneath him and they could barely contain their contempt. Now Ruddy is about to eat Newsweek alive. Remember, this is the rag Eleanor Clift has been working.

[TigerLikesRooster]

It appears that Eleanor Clift left Newsweek, but still around spewing liberal waste.

Douglas Cohn-Eleanor Clift: Rand Paul and the oil spill

May 31, 2010

WASHINGTON — The media went all out covering the primary election in Kentucky where Rand Paul, an optometrist and political novice, handily beat the candidate endorsed by the Republican establishment to carry the party's banner in the November election for an open Senate seat. The nomination of Paul, the son of former presidential candidate Ron Paul, is the result of a rising tide of discontent with government, which both the senior Paul and his son have effectively tapped.

Both men are libertarians, and that means they look with disfavor on almost all government, a philosophy that is appealing but impractical once they start applying it to programs that people want and need. Rand Paul immediately stumbled. When holding his victory party in a members' only country club, he was asked if he would have voted for the 1964 Civil Rights Act. He hemmed and hawed before finally answering days later that he would have.

He voiced what critics said at the time, that the legislation went too far in imposing federal standards over private property. What Paul said is not a unique perspective particularly among libertarians who are deeply suspicious about government and the imposition of federal standards over private rights. What is unique about Paul is the fact that he got his party's nomination and has a good chance of winning election to the Senate in the fall.

[BBell]

Back in the day Newsweek used to be a middle of the road magazine. My father subscribed to it for years and when I was in the military my parents bought me a subscription as a gift. That was then. After the 1992 elections I stopped my subscription. My wife actually did it and they even sent us a rebate check. I could not believe how they were so in the tank for Clinton and so against Bush 41. Their tilt leftward was so blatant that it sickened me. This was the same magazine I grew up reading and it went to total crap in the space of a few years.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Insanity of the boomer left was unbelievable. These guys went nuts for entire 8-year term of Clinton. All those horny soccer-moms who would gladly don kneepads and do you-know-what for 'the bent one.' Newsweek was in the thick of it, spearheaded by Elneanor Clift.

The mag never recovered.

[PhilDragoo]

The 60 Minute Deception demonstrates how Mike Wallace lied about his intentions. Used 300-400 edits to turn two days of interview into twenty minutes in which Ruddy is not allowed to finish a sentence.

Ruddy's The Strange Death of Vincent Foster is good.

I look forward to the death of Mike Wallace, too.

I cancelled my subscription to Time in 1967. Newsweek and Time were twin shrieking fairies over the coming ice age in the '70's.

Eleanor Clift the carping harpy.

Gee, and they can't sell it.

"Surprise, surprise."

[iowamark]

Time, Newsweek, and US News were all started by conservatives to balance the leftist bias in the press. All of the founders are gone and they have all fallen under leftist control.

[RightOnline]

All founded by conservatives? Hardly.

[freekitty]

Ruddy speaks and writes well.

[iowamark]

I suppose that we may quibble about the definition of conservatives. However, Henry Luce and Paul Mellon were free market Republicans who were striving for balance in the press. David Lawrence was a conservative Democrat.

[pepsionice]

I can remember my dad’s copy arriving as a kid and I’d spend an hour reading over the world’s events. Before cable news came along...this was the place to really gather facts and know the world at large.

The amusing thing here...with such a low subscription level...if they were to change and go conservative, they’d probably get an immediate 10 percent bump up, then lose thirty percent of their far liberal base...and then probably get a fifty percent growth period over the remainder of the first year.

Time will sit and watch this, with profit growth in this possible new Newsweek...and probably weep.

[Brugmansian]

This would be fun but I’m waiting for Soldier of Fortune to bid on the New York Times.

[DaxtonBrown]

[Now Ruddy is about to eat Newsweek alive. Remember, this is the rag Eleanor Clift has been working.]

This is the definition of Schadenfreud! How could we forget Eleanor Clift, I hope she is soon a baglady on the streetcorner.

[mike-zed]

Why the hell would a conservative with money buy Newsweek and assume liability for the inflated pensions of a bunch of leftist hack propagandists?

A judgment proof conservative, sure, buy it and stick a fork in it.

[Dryman]

Thanks for the first coffee spew.

How about a bidding war with Weekly World News?