Will somebody please get a gun and put America's newsmagazines out of their misery?
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Will somebody please get a gun and put America's newsmagazines out of their misery?
A meme here at Attytood over the last seven years has been the problems of daily newspapers in an Internet age. But if you think it's hard for a once-a-day print publication to stay relevant in a 24/7 world, then you need to multiple that struggle times-7 for America's newsmagazines. For the last decade, pundits have asked how these publications that ruled the media landscape in the mid-20th Century can survive in this kind of environment.
The only moderately satisfying answer is that publications like Time and Newsweek -- which have large staffs of enormously talented journalists -- can publish news and commentary on the Web in a timely fashion similar to Web-oriented sites like Slate or the Huffington Post. They do this and they do it OK, although like every "legacy media" outfit the revenue isn't sustaining as the big profits of the print monopoly era. But what can they do about the supposed raison d'etre of the whole enterprise -- that thinner-and-thinner gloosy thing that's on the newstand once a week.
Honestly? Nothing. The "weekly newsmagazine" is an oxymoron. There's just nothing about the news that has a "weekly" component to it anymore. At this point, the print editions of Time and Newsweek would need to do something truly remarkable and praiseworthy to justify their continued existence. Instead, they are going out like a tragically insane individual, stripping naked and running down the street yelling profanities at civil sociery.
Time had its meltdown -- with its much talked-about breast-feeding-a-3-year-old-mom-just-in-time-for-Mother's-Day cover that just tangentially related to the topic of overproductive moms. Over at Newsweek, you'd think they'd see this as a chance to brand themselves as the more serious and responsible rival. But this is 2012 -- what was I thinking? Instead, head honcho Tina Brown reportedly said -- and I'm not making this up -- "let the games begin."
Or maybe she said "game on." Or maybe she said in a Jamaican accent, "gay, mon."
You see the result: Newsweek's cover calling President Obama "America's first gay president" because -- like roughly half of all U.S. heterosexuals -- he now supports the idea of same-sex marriage. It reminds me of their famous 1964 cover calling Lyndon Johnson "the first black president" after he signed the Civil Rights Act. OK, I'm just kidding...they didn't do that in 1964. People would have thought such a cover was stupid and immature.
Unlike today?
Of course, in the short run they'll probably sell a few extra copies with these shock covers. But at the expense of destroying a brand of top-notch journalism that it took 75 years to build up. And then what desperate ploy will they use to beg readers to pay attention? One can only imagine. Harry Truman said famously that it's a damn shame when anyone dies, and that will be no less true of Time and Newsweek.
But it's just so sad and pathetic to see it end like this.
I have a great idea to save the newsweeklies -- become obnoxiously hyperpartisan leftist, then all the leftists will buy your publication to signal to other fruitbars that they are looking for some companionship.
Wait, what? They already did that, and they're still going bankrupt? Go figure. It seemed like such an obvious approach.— Mr. Smith- This comment has been deleted. — stonewall jackson
- myself included
— Mr. Smith - This comment has been deleted.— b,ill atkins
- This is also the paper that printed covers featuring nude yoga and Sidney Crosby wearing a skirt. — J H
- Mr. Smith:
Who owns Time and Newsweek? Big media companies. They aren't leftists!! I know you can't get it through your thick skull, but corporations hate the left. Hate it with a passion. Maybe if you learned some history, instead of blindly repeating the nonsense you hear on Rusty Limpballs show, you'd learn something.— Phil Perspective - You really haven't a clue. Take a look at where Obama got donations in 2008.
And where he's hoping to get them now. Check his relationship with the CEO of GE, just for for example. Consider Hollywood "big media?" Check those stats. You generalize to the absurd –- that's small minded.— mmds 
They should really try for more accuracy on the covers. 0bummer is our first half white president. Or our first salt and pepper president. According to Maya Angelou, Clinton was our first black preident. They should really make up their minds.— georgel- These tabloid trash magazines serve one purpose. Someting to read while waiting fior the doctor to call you in. The internet revolution is here to stay, these dinosaurs' best days are far behind them.— Phishface
- Holy Moly! This is possible the 3rd time this month that I agree with Willy.
Time and Newsweek have become rags. They are shallow opinion more than anything. I sometimes laugh at their articles. And clearly they're a shill for the democrat/leftist/ agenda. There's namecalling considered as political discourse in every issue. And they have become nothing more than propaganda like the HuffPo and Slate for the leftist ideology that has been trying to take hold since the 60's.
Maybe when we get rid of the hippies, when they retire, news magazines will once again become worthy. But until that time they are comedic, transparent and a leftist placard published in a Stalinistic fashion to try to convince and not report actual news like journalism is supposed to.— Crazybrave1 - The transformation of liberalism from political ideology to religion continues in earnest. Pretty soon liberals will be tax exempt.— jmc
Comment removed.- Maybe Obama will bail them out to make sure they are still alive to shill for him again in the upcoming election...— fredgwynne
Phil, keep in mind that even Reagan is a "leftist" by today's right wing standards. When you desperately need to make the media your enemy because you're intellectually bankrupt, and do so for decades, well, you end up like batty.- Nobody's making the media their enemy, the MSM is slowly destroying itslef and whatever shred of credibility it had left.— RG
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