The world of print media is in flux, and the latest example of that fact is The Washington Post Company’s decision to sell Newsweek. Newspapers used to be reliable moneymakers, but the Internet is quickly reducing their influence, forcing the Washington Post to sell Newsweek after nearly fifty years of ownership.
But maybe, just maybe, Newsweek is the perfect lab experiment for how to re-invent a struggling print magazine in the digital age, writes Eliot Van Buskirk. On the leading edge of a tablet revolution, with one million iPads sold in less than a month, what if some bright entrepreneur decided to make Newsweek a tablet-only publication No print, no free website just a slate-driven publication that gets the same first-mover boost that online magazine Slate (also now owned by the Washington Post) received 10 years ago when it tried, albeit too soon, to charge readers a subscription fee.
While print magazines have been increasing the price of their advertisements, it hasn’t stopped magazines like Newsweek from losing tens of millions of dollars over the past few years. The established magazine property could represent a unique opportunity for some investor who thinks that tablets represent the future of magazines and might lead to some favoritism on the App store from the powers that be at Apple if things are handled well.
The challenge of going all-digital for a viable print publication is to ensure you don t lose too much revenue by substituting presumably lower-paying digital ads for print ads, notes Buskirk. Even though you re not paying for printing plants and delivery trucks, you need enough operating income to cover your news-gathering needs, so print properties that are essentially healthy despite the strong digital readership trend are not inclined to tweak their models too drastically.
Despite its hardships, Newsweek still counts many veteran writers, editors and photographers among its staff and a readership that saw 1.5 million copies of the magazine printed each issue. The magazine’s approach of writing about the week that was could be turned around well in the reactive bloggosphere of news, and is extra tempting considering the pricetag for Newsweek could be $2 million or less.
Granted, these days, there s not much use for Newsweek s ‘news in review’ section; it could accomplish the same with a simple list of links to the top stories floating around the web. However, by ramping up the publication s analysis and opinion pieces, the new ‘Newsweek for iPad’ could seize an early advantage on the tablet as a blog-cum-periodical with the sizzle of HuffPo and The Daily Beast, and the branding of, well, Newsweek, details Buskirk. WaPoCo hopes to complete a sale in the next few months, but chairman Don Graham told staff, ‘There s no secret buyer waiting in the wings.’ So the field is wide open. Anyone got a few million to spare Newsweek is ripe for the app-ing.
Source: Wired
