Kudos to editor Jon Meacham at Newsweek for realizing that people no longer buy weekly magazines for their news. The first volume of the new, improved version of Newsweek came out last week, featuring fewer articles written in greater depth and with more individual voices – more like what you’d expect from Harpers (with more varied political slants) than a mass-consumption zine. It’s been so long since I actually noticed an improvment in a media outlet, I figured this was noteworthy enough to deserve a post.
I think (IMHO) that most news-focused magazines are going to have to go the way of Newsweek if they intend to survive. Even newspapers will have to consider the new approach. The web has made “news” an almost prescient object — like something we find out about either “as it happens” or almost “before it happens.” No print media can keep up with that. The better bet for print is to comment or report more in depth on what is newsworthy instead and throw in an interesting angle while they’re at it.