Newsweeklies Plan Special Steve Jobs Coverage

The media has gone into full swing [1] to cover Steve Jobs’ death [2], with Time, Bloomberg Businessweek, and Newsweek among those preparing special coverage.

Time’s regular weekly issue, which goes on stands Friday, will devote its whole feature well, 21 pages, to coverage of the Apple co-founder and software giant. (Time was closing the issue when the news broke, forcing it to stop the presses for what was believed to be the first time in at least 30 years.) Time also planned to hike distribution of the issue.

This will be the eighth time Jobs has been on the cover of Time. Jobs also graced the cover of Time’s first iPad issue [3] back in April 2010 when the device was rolled out, and he was a finalist for Time’s Person of the Year. The magazine industry has had high hopes for the iPad as a savior for its business woes; the irony is that parent Time Inc. is the only major magazine company that hasn’t agreed to Apple’s iPad subscription terms.

Businessweek, meanwhile, said it was producing an ad-free tribute issue in place of its regular weekly issue, which goes on stands Friday. The 64-page issue was originally slated to have Rick Perry on the cover.

Newsweek is also planning an ad-free special issue, for newsstand only. The 72-page issue will go on sale on Monday.

Jobs also dominated the homepage of countless media news sites, which were plastered with obituaries, worldwide reaction, and commemorative coverage.

A particularly striking example was Wired.com, which went ad-free on a black homepage on which it published tribute quotes from President Obama, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and others.