IN CASE YOU CAN'T REACH 92-YEAR-OLD GAZILLIONAIRES DIRECTLY: Tell us what your recommendations would be to Sidney Harman
regarding his purchase of Newsweek. (Other than mine, of
don't buy Newsweek because print is dying and the brand's not worth it.)
Give it deep, rich bass notes. And wooden cabinets.
ReplyDeleteI could almost see Newsweek serving as an "attentional filter" for either the elderly or busy people. Try to position it as "you've got 500 different cable news programs, 4 network evening news programs, 3 newspapers, and 2 million blogs and websites all trying to tell you what's going on in the country and the world. We're not going to try and cover everything; we can't. Instead, what we want to give you is the top-line stories, the really important stuff. We've designed our magazine to be read in an hour. So give us Saturday breakfast, and we'll keep you up to date on the really important stuff going on." Avoid editorializing, avoid think-pieces about the future, just try to present clear, concise, factual accounts of what's actually going on in the world. I think if aggressively positioned as an antidote to information overload, it *might* work.
ReplyDeleteHeck, that's basically how I use my current Sunday morning routine of "skim The Economist and The New Republic"
I actually think the re-design they've tried is sort of in the right direction. More long reporting and analysis, more profiles. One model for them that I think could work is to take some of the political-type stuff Rolling Stone has been doing (more the environmental and foreign policy stuff than Matt Taibbi's "THE BANKS ARE TAKING OVER!!!" hysteria)--that's the sort of stuff Newsweek can and should be doing. Secondarily, I think it's crucial for a general audience newsmag to be at least a little surprising from time to time--when I read 95% of op mags, you know exactly what you're getting from the beginning--it doesn't surprise you. Pieces can and should be provocative (one that comes to mind was the Washington Monthly's piece from about a year ago advocating "we should pass EFCA without the 'card check' provision, which is a distraction") and surprising.
ReplyDeleteIt will result in a smaller circulation, most likely, but also one that might be more appealing to advertisers (younger, more affluent).
Put Fareed Zakaria in charge. He's qualified, it's a promotion from within with merit, he'd be quite good in refocusing the magazine and steering it away from what it's been lately, the People of news magazines, and it will cheese off the more wing-nutty of certain parties.
ReplyDeleteBut, see, that's what Parade is for. Plus it has Howard Huge.
ReplyDelete