Newsweek plans big changes

Newsweek, spurred by a severe downturn in readership and revenue, is planning on making significant changes, according to The New York Times.
The magazine will try to refocus its identity from a breaker of news to a commenter on news.

“There’s a phrase in the culture, ‘we need to take note of,’ ‘we need to weigh in on,’ ” said Newsweek’s editor, Jon Meacham. “That’s going away. If we don’t have something original to say, we won’t. The drill of chasing the week’s news to add a couple of hard-fought new details is not sustainable.”
...Starting in May, articles will be reorganized under four broad, new sections — one each for short takes, columnists and commentary, long reporting pieces like the cover articles, and culture — each with less compulsion to touch on the week’s biggest events.

Instead, the magazine will try to focus on its more affluent subscribers, along the lines of The New Yorker and The Atlantic, in an effort to command higher ad rates.
Like most in the industry, Newsweek has been hit hard by plummeting ad revenue.

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