Newsweek, the struggling weekly magazine that ceased print publication last year, plans to turn the presses back on.
The magazine expects to begin a 64-page weekly edition in January or February, said Jim Impoco, Newsweek’s editor in chief. Mr. Impoco said in an interview that Newsweek would depend more heavily on subscribers than advertisers to pay its bills and that readers would pay more than in the past.
“It’s going to be a more subscription-based model, closer to what The Economist is compared to what Time magazine is,” Mr. Impoco said. “We see it as a premium product, a boutique product.”
Newsweek’s return to print is a positive sign for a magazine that struggled mightily in the digital age. At its height in 1991, the magazine had 3.3 million readers. In 2010, Newsweek’s owner, The Washington Post, sold it to the billionaire investor Sidney Harman for $1. Mr. Harman, who also assumed $40 million in liabilities, then merged it with The Daily Beast, the website owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp.
The editor Tina Brown took control of the combined titles, but the venture failed. The traditional Newsweek never properly blended with The Daily Beast. Ms. Brown announced in October 2012 that Newsweek would no longer publish a magazine, saving $40 million a year, and would continue as an online-only magazine called Newsweek Global.
Still, removing those print costs did not mean Newsweek had found a solution.
In May, Ms. Brown announced that IAC/InterActiveCorp planned to sell Newsweek so that it could focus its attention on The Daily Beast. IBT Media, a small digital media company, bought it in August. Then, in September, Ms. Brown stepped down from The Daily Beast and said she was leaving publishing entirely.
Mr. Impoco, who became Newsweek’s editor in September, said that the magazine’s new owner would not have to spend as much money publishing it as its predecessor. He said that IBT was negotiating with printers and distributors, and hoped that it would build its circulation to 100,000 in the first year.
Since taking the helm, Mr. 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.
Source:http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/04/business/media/newsweek-plans-return-to-print.html?_r=0
