Can Newsweek Change Their DNA?

This is an interesting situation worth watching to see if a classic “old media” brand can make a successful transition to the new media landscape.  As reported on cnbc.com, Newsweek will debut their transformation on Monday in print and online today.  In a nutshell, they are moving from a newsweekly to thought leadership/opinion magazine.  In addition, they will take the rate base way down and focus on quality of readers who will in theory pay more for subscriptions. 

Here is a description of the new sections in the magazine:

“The magazine will be reorganized into four sections with a new focus on opinion. A new section called “The Take” will gather all the magazine’s columnists into one place. Newsweek is adding a new survey called “Internationalist” about world happenings. “The Culture” section will feature a lead essay with big ideas about art etc. The content will aim to speak to a well educated reader. And the design of the magazine and website will be sparser, with a lot more white space”

While everyone agrees a newsweekly no longer has a purpose, it may be too late to make this move.  In truth, they abandoned objective news reporting years ago and are now coming clean as somewhat liberal leaning publication (Obama appeared on 25% of their weekly covers in 2008 dwarfing his competitors).  If they are aiming to become a high end opinion magazine, they are cruising into crowded territory.  As Julia Boorstin mentions in her report, there is already some excellent journalism in that niche such as The Atlantic Monthly, The Economist and the New Yorker.  I am a pretty frequent reader of Newsweek and the New Yorker and there is no comparison in the level of writing.  Newsweek will have to up their game considerably to compete in that space.  Newsweek has been written for a broad general audience and will have to switch gears.

A prediction – Newsweek is gone as a print magazine in less than three years.  One thing I am fairly certain of is that you can’t completely change the DNA of a media brand and expect to go merrily along.  Newsweek has subscribers, newsstand buyers, advertisers and writers who are rooted in the newsweekly world and have a firm impression and mindset of what the brand means to them.  This can’t be changed on the fly at a time when print advertising is falling out of vogue faster than Second Life.

Media brands are living things whether they are TV shows, magazines, movie franchises or rock stars.  They have definable life cycles and eventually run their course.  Even one time mega hits such as Seinfeld eventually run out of steam and die a natural death.  I saw it first hand with PC Magazine, 10 years ago one of the largest magazines in the world, today an online only brand.  Its reason for being, a monthly print magazine with comparative reviews of PCs, is no longer relevant to readers or advertisers.  While we all bemoan the loss, the hard truth is the print magazine no longer served a purpose.

In the age of Twitter and smart phones, a weekly news magazine is no longer relevant.   And, moving a print advertising supported magazine into a saturated market segment does not make a lot of business sense.  At first blush their redesigned web site looks like a hodge podge of various types of content thrown up against the wall/home page to see what will be sticky.  The web site may grow and prosper over time, but don’t count on seeing the President on a dozen Newsweek covers in 2012.  He’ll be running, but the magazine will be a memory.