Newsweek goes back into print . . . 'more like the Economist '
Surprise! Surprise! In news that will cheer print journalists everywhere, the weekly magazine Newsweek which stopped print publication last year, is going back into print.
Last print Newsweek .. . . but it wasn't
The magazine expects to begin producing a 64-page weekly edition in January or February, Jim Impoco, Newsweek’s editor in chief told the New York Times. He said in an interview that the magazine would depend more heavily on subscribers than advertisers to pay its bills . And it will cost more.
“It’s going to be a more subscription-based model, closer to what The Economist is compared to what Time magazine is,” Impoco said. “We see it as a premium product, a boutique product.”
The NYT said Newsweek’s return to print was “ a positive sign for a magazine that struggled mightily in the digital age.” In 1991, it had 3.3 million readers.
In 2010, then owners The Washington Post, sold it to billionaire Sidney Harman for $1. He then merged it with The Daily Beast, the website owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp.
The British editor Tina Brown took control of the combined titles, but the venture failed. In October last year she said Newsweek would no longer publish a print magazine, saving $40 million a year, but would continue online-only as Newsweek Global.
In May, Ms. Brown announced that IAC/InterActiveCorp planned to sell Newsweek to focus on The Daily Beast. IBT Media, a small digital media company, bought it in August. In September, Brown stepped down from The Daily Beast and said she was leaving publishing entirely.
Impoco became Newsweek’s editor that month and said the magazine’s new owner would not have to spend as much money publishing it as its predecessor.He hoped to build its circulation to 100,000 in the first year.
Since taking over, Impoco, a former editor at The New York Times, has made more than two dozen new hires and is looking to expand its international coverage, said the NYT.