Unlike Time, which is profitable, Newsweek is losing money and has overhauled its management in the past year amid pressure to turn the corner.

WSJ said Newsweek could benefit from targeting a smaller group of readers for reasons beyond reducing its printing and delivery costs. Some industry veterans think news weeklies must shed even more readers — and charge more for remaining copies — to garner an audience for which advertisers will pay a premium.

It’s unclear whether another contraction of readership is the answer to the newsweeklies’ problems, the report said, adding “Time executives say their magazine isn’t contemplating a rate-base cut, and others close to Newsweek say the push to replicate the Economist is risky because it is difficult to change a 75-year-old publication’s DNA.”