Newsweek To Return To Print

Newsweek stopped producing print copies over a year ago, but it's coming back.

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.

LAUNCHED: Crowd-Sourcing Ploy To Outbid Koch Brothers For Tribune Papers

Mediaite reports:

In an attempt to make sure neither the Koch brothers nor Rupert Murdoch obtain ownership of the Tribune Company and its major assets like the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, a liberal group has started a crowd-funding campaign to raise enough money to outbid both potential buyers and, in their belief, “take back the media.” “The only people who are bidding on [the Tribune Company] right now are infamous right-wing Billionaires,” the campaign says, “who are likely to pay something around a $660 Million pricetag to control a big slice of trusted news media.”

So far they've raised $32K.

Paper Is Not Dead

(Tipped by JMG reader Ray)

#LastPrintIssue

Newsweek ends its print run with an appropriate hashtag headline.

Newsweek Goes Digital-Only

Not very surprising. From Tina Brown:

We are announcing this morning an important development at Newsweek and The Daily Beast. Newsweek will transition to an all-digital format in early 2013. As part of this transition, the last print edition in the United States will be our Dec. 31 issue. Meanwhile, Newsweek will expand its rapidly growing tablet and online presence, as well as its successful global partnerships and events business. Newsweek Global, as the all-digital publication will be named, will be a single, worldwide edition targeted for a highly mobile, opinion-leading audience who want to learn about world events in a sophisticated context. Newsweek Global will be supported by paid subscription and will be available through e-readers for both tablet and the Web, with select content available on The Daily Beast.

The End Of Spin Magazine?

It appears that the next issue of Spin Magazine may be its last.

The next issue, dated September/October and featuring the rapper Azealia Banks on the cover, will come out in late August. But according to a statement on Sunday by Spin’s new owner, Buzzmedia, there will be no November/December issue while the company figures out what form a printed Spin might take given the magazine’s expansion online. “Buzzmedia and Spin are committed to moving forward with print, but we are still determining exactly how print fits in with Spin’s multiple distribution points and growth initiatives,” the statement said.

I devoured every issue of Spin beginning with its launch in the mid-80s, but have not picked one up in at least ten years. Blame aging and the internet.

The Final Life In Hell

The continuing demise of print has claimed another victim, Matt Groening's seemingly eternal Life In Hell strip, in which cavorted Jeff and Akbar, the gay "lovers or brothers or both, whatever offends you the most."

"Life in Hell” actually earned Groening his big break in Hollywood. It started running in Wet Magazine in 1978, then moved to the now-defunct LA Reader, where Groening worked. The strip eventually made its way to LA Weekly. Its popularity grew, amassing a client list of more than 250 papers, when producer Polly Platt noticed “Life in Hell” and showed it to actor/producer James L. Brooks. Brooks contacted Groening and wanted him to develop a series of “bumpers” based on “Life in Hell” for “The Tracey Ullman Show.” Groening was a bit apprehensive at the thought of handing over the rights to his characters, so he created the Simpsons to fill the slot.

At its final publication last Friday, Life In Hell was only appearing in 40 papers. Now to dig out my Jeff and Akbar t-shirt, circa 1988.

Newspaper Woes For New Orleans

After a widely-praised post-Katrina comeback, insiders claim New Orleans' major daily newspaper will be cutting back to publishing twice a week.

The Times-Picayune, which has published since 1837, was bought by the Newhouse family in 1962 and later merged with the afternoon daily. Up to now, the paper has avoided some of the deeper cuts in the industry, in part because the newspaper played such a critical role in the coverage of Katrina and its aftermath. “The newspaper, oddly enough, is stabilizing, albeit at a reduced level from before the storm,” he said. “It has not come roaring back — it is a smaller business, but it is healthy business and that can’t be said of many American newspapers. The reporters and editors who work here accomplished something amazing.”

This Is Why They Have Paywalls Now

(Via Andrew Sullivan)

Top Newspaper Circulation

The above figures reflect combined physical sales and paid online subscriptions.

Digital circulation for The New York Times, which put in place a paid online model in the spring, more than tripled to 380,000. The Wall Street Journal was the only paper with a larger paid digital circulation, with more than 537,000. The Wall Street Journal remained the largest weekday newspaper when both print and digital subscriptions were included, with a total average circulation of just under 2.1 million. The New York Times retained its distinction as the largest Sunday paper at 1.6 million. (Weekday circulation for The Times was 1.2 million).

The rest of the top 25 is here.

Guide Magazine To Go Web Only

Long-running gay travel title, Guide Magazine, announced today that after 30 years in business, their final print edition will be published in July as the company migrates to a web-only presence. Via press release:

Pink Triangle Press (PTP) today announced plans to migrate the international gay travel publication Guide magazine from a print publication to an internet-based publishing operation. A redesigned GuideMag.com, focused exclusively on gay travel, will launch at the end of May. The final print edition of Guide magazine, the August 2010 issue, will roll off the press the third week of July. For more than three decades, Guide magazine has been renowned for providing gay male readers with a quirky blend of gay travel information, culture and politics.

The Canada-based Pink Triangle Press also publishes local editions of the gay newspaper, Xtra, in Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver.

Staff Of Chicago's Gay Paper Quit

The woes of queer print media appear unending. Staffers of the long-running LGBT paper Chicago Free Press have quit because their salaries weren't being paid.

The art director, graphic designer and most of the writers at the Chicago Free Press left the gay publication Monday after the company stopped paying its employees, according to Matt Simonette, who also left his position as editor. The news follows financial struggles and decreased ad sales for the paper, which is geared toward the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities. Simonette said Tuesday that editorial contributors had not been paid since mid-November and staff members had not received paychecks that were due Dec. 15. Other former employees said paychecks had not come on time in the past. "The senior staff did not resign; it was just simply a matter of leaving because of non-payment," Simonette said.

The paper is owned by Rainbow Media.

Editor & Publisher Folds In Massive Selloff Of Media Trade Titles

Today Nielsen Business Media announced the sales of Billboard Magazine, Adweek, Brandweek, The Hollywood Reporter, and four other titles as well as their film industry conventions business. The new owner is a just formed media company called e5 Global Media Holdings. Not surviving the sale was the 125 year-old Editor & Publisher, the seemingly eternal watchdog of print journalism. From Nielsen's press release:

This move will allow us to strengthen investment in our core businesses – those parts of our portfolio that have the greatest potential for growth – and ensure our long-term success. We remain committed to building our trade show group and affiliated brands. These assets continue to be a key part of The Nielsen Company's overall portfolio and we strongly believe they are positioned to grow as the economy recovers. In addition, we'll continue to assess the strategic fit of our remaining portfolio of publications. [snip] I want to take this opportunity to offer heartfelt thanks to our colleagues who will be leaving the company for their dedication and commitment to Nielsen over the years. Please join me in wishing them well in their future endeavors.

Washington Times To Fold

The wingnut/Moonie mouthpiece Washington Times is closing up shop as a "traditional" newspaper to reinvent itself as an opinion publication. Via Eric Boehlert at HuffPo:

You'd think that somebody with a direct line to the Almighty, and tapped by Jesus to save mankind on Earth, would be able to come up with a better business plan for running a daily newspaper. But, alas, after nearly three decades of unrelenting financial losses, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, a federal tax cheat, accused cult leader, and founder of the Unification Church, has decided to pull out. Actually, according to news reports, it's more like Moon's U.S. college-educated sons, as part of an internal family power struggle, have decided to finally cut off the endless stream of Asian church cash that's kept the Washington Times afloat. With the announcement that 40 percent of the Times' staff is getting pink-slipped, and that the daily's no longer even going to bother with traditional who/what/where/when/why reporting, instead publishing an opinion-heavy publication that will be free of charge at a diminished number of local outlets, Times owners look like they're angling to be a Weekly Standard wannabe, churning out lots of predictable GOP Noise Machine opinion prattle. What is clear is that the daily's days as a functioning newspaper are now over. R.I.P. The Washington Times.

Publisher Of Washington Blade And Other LGBT Print Titles Shuts Down

This weekend I noticed that the websites of the Washington Blade, Southern Voice, and several other titles published by Window Media had not been updated in a few days. Just now, Southern Voice posted this message to their Facebook fan page:

With deepest regret, as editor of SoVo, I have to tell you that we arrived at the office to learn that our parent company, Window Media, has shut down. While the 20 years of SoVo have come to an end, our civil rights movement is only beginning. I am personally grateful to all of the staff, and to all of you who have had the courage to share your stories. It has been the honor of my life to help you tell them.

Among the affected titles are the weekly newspapers Washington Blade, Southern Voice, South Florida Blade and the bar guides David Magazine and 411 Magazine. (Earlier this year, Window Media ceased publishing Genre Magazine.) Window Media's primary investor, the Avalon Equity Fund, has been in receivership over a loan from the Small Business Administration.

This is a terrible loss. In particular, the Washington Blade has been an invaluable resource for important coverage of LGBT legislation news out of the nation's capital. This and most LGBT news blogs have relied on the Washington Blade for timely reporting on issues not always covered by the mainstream media. The question now is whether anybody will step forward to rescue any of these publications. Let's cross our fingers.

UPDATE: The Washington Blade has confirmed its demise via Twitter.

UPDATE II: There's at least one survivor: South Florida's 411 Magazine will begin publishing next week as Mark's List.

UPDATE III: Predictably, the Freepers are celebrating.

UPDATE IV: Politco reports that Washington Blade editor Kevin Naff is hinting at a new life for the publication.

Naff, who is not authorized to speak for the company, but can do so now as an independent citizen, tells POLITICO: "The Blade staff is united and ready to continue the paper's long-standing mission. The first meeting for our new venture is Tuesday and we welcome the community's input as we move forward."

UPDATE V: Insiders at the South Florida Blade say they will be relaunching the title under a new name with the company taking over 411 Magazine.

UPDATE VI: Washington City Paper covers the final day at the Washington Blade.