US weeklies and magazines hit hard as revenues fall

But for now,the New York Times says,the answer may be that newsweeklies are already gone,having evolved into something else.

“We’re not in the business of telling people the news,” the paper quoted Richard Stengel,managing editor of Time,as saying. “News has become a commodity. They already know the news.”

Among the big three,the Times said,only Time seems content where it is. US News and Newsweek struggle financially. But Time generated a profit of nearly USD 50 million in 2008,in part by sharply cutting costs,the paper said,citing Time Inc executives who are privy to the finances.

Time and Newsweek each had about a third fewer ad pages in 2008 than they did in 2004,but Time sold more pages,and at higher prices,the Time added quoting media buyers. As part of a much larger chain,it has advantages over its competitors in combining ad sales efforts and back-office costs with other magazines.

Unable to compete with the immediacy of television,cable and then the Internet,newsmagazines,the paper noted,have been moving for decades in the direction of analysis,commentary and news-related feature articles.

That trend has accelerated in recent years,driven by financial pressures. The magazines’ editorial staffs are about half as big as they were in the 1990s,and they have shuttered many of the bureaus they once had around the world,it added.

They still produce some deep,original reporting,the paper noted but said these days,they are more likely to offer a comprehensive survey of a subject to present an argument or offer a prescription,like Newsweek’s recent cover article on why President-elect Barack Obama may come to embrace Vice President Dick Cheney’s view of executive power,or Time’s on how a trillion-dollar stimulus package should be spent.

“Time and Newsweek have definitely become more about views,” it quoted Victor Navasky,a journalism professor at Columbia University and a former publisher and editor of The Nation. And as a strategy,he said,”I think that makes sense.”

Newsweek,owned by The Washington Post Company,is planning a major overhaul this year,the Times said. It has not made its new vision public,but the paper quoted executives as saying it will strive to be a “thought leader,” competing more with The Economist than with Time,in other words,a big stride in the direction it was already headed.

The strategy includes a major reduction in circulation and operating costs and a focus on an elite audience to attract advertisers.

“I think a weekly magazine is a standing dinner date,or the fourth person in your bridge game,” it quoted Jon Meacham,editor of Newsweek,as saying.

“Sometimes they’re the most delightful person in the world,sometimes they get drunk and throw up on you. But enough times in a year,when something happens,that’s the first place you want to go to hear what they have to say,” he said.

To that end,Newsweek has bet heavily on the writing of name-brand journalists,familiar presences on television as well as in print,like Fareed Zakaria,Meacham and Christopher Hitchens.

Time,the paper said,has done some of the same,with writers like Joe Klein and Michael Kinsley but it has not staked its identity on those stars to the same extent. The Economist represents the opposite extreme; its writers’ names do not appear with their articles.