On Monday, The Washington Post Company announced that it had sold Newsweek to ninety-two-year-old stereo mogul Sidney Harman. Although Mike Allen and Keach Hagey in Politico report that “Harman is expected to preserve the serious-minded, essentially New-Democratic tone Meacham set for the magazine,” the news nonetheless sparked speculation about what the new owner might do to turn the venerable weekly around. We asked a wide range of media types for the one piece of advice you’d give to Sidney Harman, as well as for ideas about what Newsweek should do next? Here are some of our favorite responses. We’ll update this as more come in.
Dave Winer, Visiting Scholar, Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at NYU:
The opportunity for all big media, not just Newsweek, is to become a platform for sources to report directly to people who are thirsty for news. You and I should be able to write “for Newsweek” as we now write on Blogger or Tumblr or Wordpress. But I would give the same advice to Time or US News or The Washington Post or The New York Times.
Roger Ebert, film critic and screenwriter:
I think Sidney Harman should read Spectator.
Bill Grueskin, Dean of Academic Affairs at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, formerly of The Wall Street Journal:
Create premium editions with content so valuable and irreplaceable that Newsweek could use it to generate either subscription revenue or obscenely high advertising rates.
Evan Smith, CEO and editor-in-chief of The Texas Tribune:
1. Remember that all of us these days get our news not every week or every day, but every minute and every second. The real value Newsweek brings to the table going forward is context and analysis—forward-rotation journalism. I already know what happened by the time they’d tell me; what I really need to know is why and how and what’s going to happen next.
2. Just as important, I need innovation in presentation: true 21st-century platform-agnostic journalism. Wow me with Flash-enabled tools; bowl me over with data applications; engage me with story-telling by way of audio and video.
3. Own the push-content space. Use social media more aggressively to put your content in front of willing audiences. Collaborate with and partner with as many of your former competitors as possible to produce great work and distribute it across their network as well as your own. And tell all of us how to think about the news in person, through events across the country that engage us, literally, where we live.
Tucker Carlson, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Daily Caller:
I wish I knew. If I had any clue what to do with Newsweek, I would have bought it myself.
In an interview, Mr. Harman has taen pains to insist that his wife, the esteemed California Congresswoman, Jane Harman, will have nothing to fo with Newsweek. Splendid, the more as the Honorable Lady is a faithful ally of the government of Israel and an extremely efective channel for its influence on US policy. Let us give Mr. Harman, for the time being, the benefit of the doubt---and keep an eye on things.
#1 Posted by Norman Birnbaum, CJR on Tue 3 Aug 2010 at 04:10 PM
Make an iPad edition, quickly before Time beats you out.
#2 Posted by Dennis Adamson, CJR on Tue 3 Aug 2010 at 07:56 PM
The only way to make a print publication a must-read today -- particularly a weekly publication -- is to provide information unavailable elsewhere. Back in the '70s when I was a Newsweek editor, the magazine had a large cadre of foreign correspondents deployed around the world, and was providing background, insight and perspective that readers were not getting from their daily papers. In this era of shrunken tv network and newspaper foreign staffs -- with most international news coming from correspondents based in a handful of global capitals -- a magazine with reach and depth could still provide insight from the many hotspots that are part of today's geopolitical mix. Or it could be one more publication providing fluff and entertainment for readers. Since the current Newsweek wasn't competitive doing the latter, perhaps it ought to consider trying the former.
#3 Posted by Milton R. Benjamin, CJR on Tue 3 Aug 2010 at 11:24 PM
The CJR once again confirms my belief that you can ascend very high in the (dying) media world and still be a massively obtuse dumbass.
To wit:
"Create premium editions with content so valuable and irreplaceable that Newsweek could use it to generate either subscription revenue or obscenely high advertising rates."
And then invent a perpetual motion machine.
Or a pony that shits diamonds.
Or better yet, "I think they should make more money. Maybe by selling more ads or selling more copies. Or something."
I can't imagine why nobody has thought of this before.
But this is the kind of dazzingly insightful thinking that students go heavily into debt to obtain access to at Columbia (who I *dare* to post this).
#4 Posted by cas127, CJR on Thu 5 Aug 2010 at 04:43 PM
Critical [news] Media Literacy needs to be part of any dialogue relating to perpetuating the mostly honorable field of journalism; i.e., teach the public just what is journalism vs. commentary; and what questions to ask of our "news" sources that help to distinguish between the two. Who is providing the "news"? Who is paying for that "news" (in advertising time)? What does the communicator of that "news" have to gain by saying what s/he is saying/writing (maybe a huge paycheck and 'lots of book deals perhaps). How authentic were the statistics presented? Who paid for them? Who owns the news source and what else do they own that might compromise the truth, etc.
#5 Posted by Isa Cann, CJR on Fri 6 Aug 2010 at 11:09 AM