NEW YORK U.S. News & World Report's decision last week to abandon the news-weekly model follows its progression to focus on online service journalism.
The radical step isn't in the cards now for rivals Time and Newsweek, also under pressure as readers and advertisers shift online. Still, circulation economics would seem to dictate they'll continue to shrink rate bases while aiming at a smaller, opinion-leader audience.
Both titles have recently cut their rate bases and issued redesigns inspired by the 747,254-circ The Economist. The British import's U.S. circ and advertising have grown rapidly in the past decade, helped by a global editorial perspective and clever marketing. While smaller, its audience is younger and richer than that of the U.S. newsweeklies, and attracts a different ad base. Drug, financial and auto, while way down in Time and Newsweek this year, remain their top 5 ad categories. The Economist gets the bulk of its ads from business and tech; financial; and schools, camps and seminars, per TNS Media Intelligence.
With the '08 election behind it, the 2.7-million circ Newsweek is expected to make dramatic changes and further reduce rate base in '09. Editorially, the title has been running more personality-driven cover stories to connect with readers -- a likely indicator of the direction editor Jon Meacham is taking it while making the Web site a news hub. Newsweek declined to comment on its plans.
If they forego circulation by cutting their rate base, observers said the newsweeklies would have to raise subscription prices and ad rates, a strategy magazine consultant Martin Walker called risky.
"They get the pharma and auto because of their circulation," he said. "As they move down, it makes it hard to reach their numbers." Walker also questioned the titles' upscale push: "Time and Newsweek are Macy's, The Economist is Bloomingdale's."
