'Time' Magazine: The Last Of The Big Newsweeklies

The decision by the corporate owner of Newsweek to put the magazine up for sale has once more raised the question in journalism circles as to whether there's a role — or any future at all — for newsweekly magazines.

"The idea of a magazine that looks at the week, wraps it up and puts a little forward spin on it, that's pretty much an anachronism," says Alan D. Mutter, a former newspaper editor and current consultant on digital media ventures. "People are consuming news left and right, and if you aim to be informed, it's pretty hard not to be."

Yet over at the historic Time-Life Building, in offices looking out over Midtown Manhattan from the 23rd floor, editors putting out the nation's leading such magazine are much more sanguine about their fate.

"In terms of our category, we're not only the last guy standing — we're the only guy standing," says Rick Stengel, Time magazine's managing editor, its most senior editorial position. "We convert information into knowledge. Knowledge is what people want. Information is the commodity."

The State Of Today's Newsweekly

Time enjoyed an estimated profit of around $40 million last year. Although the magazine does not confirm the figure, Stengel says it is on track to increase profits this year.

It's Time's competitors that are in rough shape. Last year Businessweek was sold to Bloomberg News for a few million dollars; in 2008 U.S.News & World Report announced its move from a weekly to a monthly publication; and in 2009, after losing tens of millions of dollars a year and with the help of Editor Jon Meacham, Newsweek reinvented itself to be more of a journal of opinion and analysis.

"If we succeed, these well-argued essays will make you feel vindicated — or maybe outraged," Kathleen Deveny, Newsweek's deputy editor, wrote in May 2009. "But they'll draw you in. Because while there is no shortage of information out there, we believe there is a scarcity of insight."

Last month, however, the Washington Post Co., Newsweek's corporate parent of nearly five decades, put it up for sale.

One suitor for Newsweek, Christopher Ruddy, the CEO of the conservative news site and monthly magazine Newsmax, says it's a terrific publication in many ways. But he argues the Washington Post Co. may not have served Newsweek well.

"One of the things that's pretty clear, if you compare Time to Newsweek, is that Newsweek, in order to save money in the downturn, started cutting content," Ruddy says in an interview. "It's pretty thin."

'Looking For Context'

Over at Time, editors say the reinvention of Newsweek, whatever its journalistic merits, represents a retreat from the newsweekly field.

Under Stengel, Time pursued its own reinvention three years ago to try to evolve for a digital age. It changed its publication date to Fridays, saying surveys of readers found they too often put the magazine aside after receiving it on Mondays. Reporters and editors were encouraged to gin up more content for the Web, freeing them to break news more frequently — and not coincidentally pull in more readers to Time.com.

And, just as important, the magazine reduced its circulation to a core audience that's more appealing to advertisers — 3.2 million paid subscribers.

They are, Stengel says, "not so much people who are trying to find out the latest bit of information about how many points did [Sen.] Blanche Lincoln win by, but people who are looking for context, who are looking for larger meaning."

Stengel seems a bit surprised to note his core subscriber base has grown a bit over the in the past year. And he says he's heartened by the response to Time's iPad application. In the future, Stengel says, he'll be happy even if most readers know little about Time's print edition — as long as they're paying for the magazine's electronic touch tablet editions.