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Media Matters
Who Needs Newsweek?
Besides, that is, its new 92-year-old owner.
We old journalistic warhorses, such as remain in the corral, tend to moisten an eye when transition comes for virtually any species from The Wonderful World of Print; e.g., Newsweek, which the Washington Post sold this week to 91-year-old “audio pioneer” Sidney Harman, as the New York Times denominates him.
Your average moistened eye these days can dry quickly. This is such a moment. Newsweek, founded in 1933, thus only a little younger than its new boss, hasn’t had much to say to America for some time. It started out at second fiddle behind Henry Luce’s livelier, more luscious Time; it sawed away dutifully in that station for a long while, then had to submit just months ago to a re-invention for, ahem, the digital age. The re-invention, it seems unnecessary to say, failed of its purpose, which was to excite younger readers about the mission of a journalistic species that seems to have outlived itself — to wit, the newsmagazine.
The newsmagazines’ raison d’être is the spacious look the editors give minute happenings. The newsmag is supposed to make sense of things by observing them in context: often against their historical backdrop. Ah, the reader is supposed to say, I start to see…
Time generally excelled at the calling, for all that the worldview it reflected came mainly from the brain and personality of Henry Luce. Luce stamped every page with his viewpoint. He knew what he liked; he knew what he disliked. He was in a general sense conservative, certainly anti-communist; he liked Ike. Newsweek never had things worked out that nicely. In its better days, under the Post, it was sort of liberal: never infuriatingly so, and relatively calm about things. For people who liked that sort of thing, that was the sort of thing they liked.
Newsweek’s recent and present problem is that that sort of thing doesn’t support big newsmagazines. Conservatives don’t yearn to read “Raise My Taxes, Mr. President!,” by Fareed Zakaria, with its reproach to the expiring Bush tax cuts as “an irresponsible act of hubris during an economic boom.” Liberals can get the same stuff anywhere today: the Huffington Post, the New York Times editorial and op-ed pages, featuring Frank Rich and Paul Krugman; E.J. Dionne at the Washington Post; blogs innumerable; and so on. Who needs Newsweek?
Newsweek editor Jon Meacham’s own liberalism isn’t of a particularly edgy or creative sort. It tends to nod agreeably to Beltway platitudes, rarely if ever challenging the reigning culture. A Newsweek willing to call out the culture when the culture needs calling out — that might be a Newsweek worth buying and keeping alive.
As for New Owner Harman (as Time would have called him, way back when), possibly the first datum to contemplate is his 92nd birthday — today. Photos make the guy look good, but you never can tell at that age. Beyond that, he says only of Newsweek’s future, “It would be a remarkable conceit to tell you at this stage in the game that I have a plan. The plan is there to be had. I regard myself as well equipped.” Not precisely the dose of inspiration for which a journalistic Brontosaurus yearns.
We’ll see, of course (the platitude good journalists are supposed to eschew). Stranger things than the survival of a mission-less institution have happened in our world — but not a whole lot stranger.
About the Author
William Murchison, a Dallas-based columnist for Creators Syndicate and author of Mortal Follies: Episcopalians and the Crisis of Mainline Christianity (Encounter Books), is completing a biography of John Dickinson..
Letter to the Editor View all comments (18) | Leave a comment
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Ken (Old Texican)| 8.4.10 @ 10:31AM
RIP you dirty rotten scoundrels.
You are no longer allowed in the "ruling class".
heh heh heh
sinanju| 8.4.10 @ 10:44AM
Murchison is being way to polite and low-key. Newsweek went completely off the rails when it declared itself to be Obama's unofficial house organ.
It simultaneously took its liberalism to obnoxious, bizarre extremes: "We're all socialists now", "The meaning of Michelle", "Are babies racists?", "The case for killing grandma"... etc., etc. The hits just keep coming. I don't know what kind of demographic would be seen picking up nowadays let alone paying money for it.
Life and Look magazines| 8.4.10 @ 10:47AM
wwwwWWWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!
Michael| 8.4.10 @ 11:04AM
"Newsweek" is a shadow of what it used to be. If libraries are lucky they have copies of it when it used to be a real magazine that actually had news.
AMENBRO| 8.4.10 @ 2:57PM
No offense sir, but when was that?
I deleted its presence in my house in 1979, as well as Time.
National Review, the American Spectator & the Conservative Chronicle, at three times the price replaced them serving me quite well along with the lifetime subscriptions to National GEO, & Smithsonian my Granpappy gave me.
I'm happy for ya if you enjoyed it. I just beg to differ in their ever being objective contributors to REALITY.
RationalGeezer| 8.29.10 @ 3:19PM
Amen, Amenbro, except for National GEO. I terminated my 60-year readership of that formerly fine publication after it became clear that they were simply more circumspect in hiding their stupidity and elitism behind pretty pictures. The Man-Made Global Warming Hoax and their retention of the temperature-corrupting liar James Hanson as their climate consultant clearly indicated that their former dedication to scientific truth was no longer dedicated.
Albert| 8.4.10 @ 11:08AM
I think the last time I actually read a Newsweek was 1978. Maybe. It is hard to remember because Newsweek was so unmemorable, even boring. Didn't Supermarkets start placing Newsweek next to the "Weekly World News" and "Globe" at the check out line? I seem to remember seeing it somewhere recently.
Weekly World News| 8.4.10 @ 6:29PM
Bat Boy FTW!!!
Petronius| 8.4.10 @ 11:55AM
When I suggested in these pages that RET buy Newsweek, he responded, "let's not indulge our fancies for antiques." I now stand admonished in full.
The same goes for audio equipment. True Music Lovers will find the best values in these three lines: Electrocompaniet (Norway), MLB (Germany), and Audio Research in Minnesota.
Walden| 8.4.10 @ 12:12PM
I must admit to a certain feeling of Schadenfreude upon witnessing the failure of the smug Jon Meacham's attempts to bring relevance to Newsweek.
Dennis| 8.4.10 @ 1:45PM
Newsweek is ded, as is TIME. Nobody reads the tripe anymore except the "elite"..
Dennis| 8.4.10 @ 1:46PM
Sorry for typo. Newsweek is dead!
Steve A| 8.4.10 @ 2:10PM
NY Times, USA Today etc. to follow shortly along with liberal TV media. These people are vile, depressing, unhappy & not remotely entertaining. This all adds up to no $$ from advertisers or customers. Sooooo sad.
Look, That's Life| 8.4.10 @ 4:17PM
I thought Newsweek folded years ago.
Vern Crisler| 8.4.10 @ 6:34PM
Good one....
Paul Revere| 8.5.10 @ 1:10PM
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