Assignment # 1

Subject: Contemporary World Media.

Topic: Newsweek.

Submitted to: Miss Shameem.

Submitted by: Mina Mehbooob. (570) Ezza Safdar. (582) Zara Ashfaq. (580)

B.S (Hons) Mass Communication Semester 2

Contents:

Introduction. Circulation and branches. Major information. History. Founding and early years. Under post ownership. Restructuring and new owner. Merger with The Daily Beast. 2011 redesign. Highlights and controversies. Lewinsky scandal. Claims of bias. Iraq war planning. 2008 elections. Palin & Bachmann covers. Contributors and reporters. Newsweek Pakistan. References.

Introduction:

Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence. Newsweek is published in four English language editions and 12 global editions written in the language of the circulation region. Since 2008, Newsweek has undergone a series of internal and external contractions designed to shift the magazine's focus and audience while shoring up the title's finances. Instead, losses at the newsweekly accelerated: revenue dropped 38 percent from 2007 to 2009. The revenue freefall prompted an August 2010 sale by owner The Washington Post Company to 92-year-old audio pioneer Sidney Harmanreportedly for a purchase price of $1.00 and an assumption of the magazine's liabilities. Editor Jon Meacham departed from the magazine upon completion of the sale. In November 2010 Newsweek merged with the news and opinion website The Daily Beast after extensive negotiations between the proprietors of the respective publications. Tina Brown, The Daily Beast's editor-in-chief was expected to serve as the editor of both publications. Newsweek is jointly owned by the estate of the late Harman and IAC.

Major Information: Editor: Tina Brown. Categories: News Magazine Weekly. Publisher: Ray Chelstowsk. Total circulation 2011: 1,530,486. First issue: February 17, 1933. Company: The Newsweek Daily Beast Company. Country: U.S United States. Based In: New York.

Language: English. Website: Newsweek.com. Circulation and branches:

In 2003, worldwide circulation was more than 4 million, including 2.7 million in the U.S; by 2010 it was down to 1.5 million (with newsstand sales declining to just over 40 thousand copies per week). Newsweek publishes editions in Japanese, Korean, Polish, Spanish, Rioplatense Spanish,Arabic, and Turkish, as well as an English language Newsweek International. Russian Newsweek, published since incorporated an international news section from Newsweek. Based in New York City, the magazine has 22 bureaus: nine in the U.S.: New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago/Detroit, Dallas, Miami, Washington, D.C., Boston and San Francisco, as well as overseas in London, Paris, Berlin, Moscow, Jerusalem, Baghdad, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Beijing, South Asia, Cape Town, Mexico City and Buenos Aires.

History:

Cover of the first issue of News-Week magazine,

History: Founded by Thomas J.C. Martin, a former foreign editor at Time magazine, Newsweek was first published on Feb. 17, 1933. That issue, called "NewsWeek," featured seven photographs from the week's news on the cover. It cost 10 cents a copy, $4 for a year, and had a circulation of 50,000. Newsweek was bought by The Washington Post Company in 1961. Today, Newsweek has a worldwide circulation of more than 4 million. Newsweek holds more prestigious National Magazine Awards, given by the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME), than any other newsweekly. Content: Newsweek offers comprehensive coverage of world events with a global network of correspondents, reporters and editors covering national and international affairs, business, science and technology, society and the arts and entertainment. Newsweek also features respected commentators such as Jonathan Alter, Ellis Close, Jane Bryant Quinn, Robert J. Samuelson, Anna Quindlen, Stuart Taylor Jr. and George Will. Newsweek.com offers the weekly magazine online, daily news updates, Web-only columns from Newsweek's top writers, photo galleries, audio and video reports from correspondents, podcasts, mobile content and archives.

EDITORIAL,, Editor: Jon Meacham Managing Editor: Daniel Klaidman Director of Special Projects: Alexis Gelber Assistant Managing Editors: Kathleen Deveny, Deidre Depke, Mark Miller, Debra Rosenberg, Amid Capeci (Design)

New York Staff: Newsweek's editorial staff, based in New York, is made up of senior
editors and writers and general, associate and assistant editors. The editorial staff also includes head researchers, research-reporters, librarians, graphic artists, photographers and support technicians.

Bureaus: Newsweek's domestic bureaus are located in Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles,
Miami, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Its overseas bureaus are in Baghdad,

Beijing, Cape Town, Jerusalem, London, Mexico City, Moscow, Hong Kong, Paris and Tokyo.

Sections: Newsweek covers a wide range of topics in National and International

Affairs, Business, Science & Technology, Medicine, Family and Arts & Entertainment. Additional coverage is provided through "The Tip Sheet," a newsletter for consumers, covering topical subjects, such as health, money and travel. Regular weekly pages are Periscope, My Turn, Conventional Wisdom Watch, Perspectives and Newsmakers. My Turn is the only newsweekly column written by readers. Approximately 4,000 letters to the editor are received each month.

Other Editions:

Newsweek Inc. also publishes Newsweek International in three Englishlanguage editionsAtlantic, Asia, Latin Americaand is part of The Bulletin With Newsweek in Australia, with a combined circulation of 646,000. Newsweek appears each week in more than 190 countries around the world. It is the only newsmagazine with weekly local-language editionsin Japanese (since 1986), Korean (since '91) and Spanish (since '96). On June 6, 2000, Newsweek International launched Newsweek In Arabic (Newsweek Bil Logha Al-Arabia), and later in 2000, Newsweek Polska was published and is distributed throughout Poland. In 2002, Newsweek launched Newsweek Select, distributed in Hong Kong and in mainland China. In 2004, Russky Newsweek was launched in Russia, and in 2006, Newsweek En Espanol Argentina was launched in Argentina. In 1993, Newsweek produced a CD-ROM sold quarterly by subscription and at retail outletsthe first such electronic publishing venture by a major magazine. In 1994, Newsweek went online on Prodigy and in 1996 moved to America Online. In Oct ober, 1998, Newsweek.com was launched. On June 19, 2000, the site entered into a joint venture with NBC, MSNBC.com and MSNBC. In October, 2007, Newsweek.com relaunched as a standalone site with a new design and updated technology. Since 2001, Newsweek.com has been honored repeatedly for its coverage of politics, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, global and homeland security and health and business coverage . In 2006 and 2007, it was honored as a National Magazine Award finalist. In 2007, it was nominated for an Emmy Award. Written by Newsweek's top correspondents around the globe, Newsweek.com leverages leading-edge technology to help shape its coverage. The site has set the standard for successfully integrating print and online content in the newsmagazine business

January 16, 1939 cover featuring Felix Frankfurter

Founding and early years:

News-Week was launched in 1933 by Thomas J.C. Martyn, a former foreign-news editor for Time. He obtained financial backing from a group of U.S. stockholders "which included Ward Cheney, of the Cheney silk family, John Hay Whitney, and Paul Mellon, son of Andrew W. Mellon". Paul Mellon's ownership in Newsweek apparently represented "the first attempt of the Mellon family to function journalistically on a national scale."[7] The group of original owners invested around $2.5 million. Other large stockholders prior to 1946 were public utilities investment banker Stanley Childs, and Wall Street corporate lawyer Wilton Lloyd-Smith. The first issue of the magazine was dated 17 February 1933. Seven photographs from the week's news were printed on the first issue's cover.[8] In 1937 News-Week merged with the weekly journal Today, which had been founded in 1932 by future New York Governor and diplomat W. Averell Harriman, and Vincent Astor of the prominent Astor family. As a result of the deal, Harriman and Astor provided $600,000 in venture capital funds and Vincent Astor became both the chairman of the board and its principal stockholder between 1937 and his death in 1959. In 1937 Malcolm Muir took over as president and editor-in-chief. He changed the name to Newsweek; emphasized interpretive stories, introduced signed columns, and

launched international editions. Over time the magazine developed a broad spectrum of material, from breaking stories and analysis to reviews and commentary.

Under Post ownership:

The magazine was purchased by The Washington Post Company in 1961. Richard M. Smith became Chairman in 1998, the year that the magazine inaugurated its "Best High Schools in America" list, a ranking of public secondary schools based on the Challenge Index, which measures the ratio of Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate exams taken by students to the number of graduating students that year, regardless of the scores earned by students or the difficulty in graduating. Schools with average SAT scores above 1300 or average ACT scores above 27 are excluded from the list; these are categorized instead as "Public Elite" High Schools. In 2008, there were 17 Public Elites. Smith resigned as board chairman in December 2007.

Restructuring and new owner:

During 20082009, Newsweek undertook a dramatic business restructuring. Citing difficulties in competing with online news sources to provide unique news in a weekly publication, the magazine refocused its content on opinion and commentary beginning with its May 24, 2009 issue. It shrank its subscriber rate base, from 3.1 million to 2.6 million in early 2008, to 1.9 million in July 2009 and then to 1.5 million in January 2010a decline of 50% in one year. Meacham described his strategy as "counterintuitive" as it involved discouraging renewals and nearly doubling subscription prices as it sought a more affluent subscriber base for its advertisers. During this period, the magazine also laid off staff. While advertising revenues were down almost 50% compared to the prior year, expenses were also diminished in a planned strategy that the publishers hoped would return Newsweek to profitability. The financial results for 2009 as reported by The Washington Post Company showed that advertising revenue for Newsweek was down 37% in 2009 and the magazine division reported an operating loss for 2009 of $29.3 million compared to a loss of $16 million in 2008. During the first quarter of 2010, the magazine lost nearly $11 million. By May 2010, Newsweek had been losing money for the past two years and was put up for sale. The sale attracted international bidders. One bidder was Syrian entrepreneur Abdulsalam Haykal, CEO of Syria-based publishing company Haykal Media, who brought together a coalition of Middle Eastern investors with his company. Haykal later claimed his bid was ignored by Newsweek's bankers, Allen & Co.

The magazine was sold to audio pioneer Sidney Harman on August 2, 2010, for $1 in exchange for assuming the magazine's financial liabilities. Harman's bid was accepted over three competitors. Meacham left the magazine upon completion of the sale. Sidney Harman was the husband of Jane Harman, at that time a member of Congress from California.

Merger with The Daily Beast:

At the end of 2010, Newsweek merged with the online publication The Daily Beast, following extensive negotiations between the respective proprietors. Tina Brown, The Daily Beast's editor-in-chief, became editor of both publications. The new entity, The Newsweek Daily Beast Company, was 50% owned by IAC and 50% by Harman. The goal of The Newsweek Daily Beast Company is to have The Daily Beast be a source of instant analysis of the news, while Newsweek would serve to take a look at the bigger picture, provide deeper analysis, and "connect the dots," in the words of Harman, and for both publications to ultimately be profitable. During her tenure as editor-in-chief of Newsweek, Brown has taken the news weekly in a different direction than her predecessor. Whereas Jon Meacham looked to make the focus solely on politics and world affairs, Brown has brought the focus back on to all of current events, not just politics, business, and world affairs (although these issues are still the focus of the magazine). This is seen in increased attention fashion and pop culture and many of her covers since taking the job.

2011 Redesign:
Newsweek was redesigned in March 2011. The new Newsweek moves the "Perspectives" section to the front of the magazine, where it serves essentially as a highlight reel of the past week on The Daily Beast. More room is made available in the front of the magazine for columnists, editors, and special guests. A new "News Gallery" section features two-page spreads of photographs from the week with a brief article accompanying each one. The "News Beast" section features short articles, a brief interview with a newsmaker, and several graphs and charts for quick reading in the style of The Daily Beast. This is where the Newsweek staple "Conventional Wisdom" is now located. Brown retains Newsweek's focus on in-depth, analytical features and original reporting on politics and world affairs, as well as a new focus on longer fashion and pop culture features. A larger culture section named "Omnivore" features art, music, books, film, theater, food, travel, and television, including a weekly "Books" and "Want" section. The back page is reserved for a "My Favorite Mistake" column written by celebrity guest columnists about a mistake they made that defines who they are.

Newsweek, May 24, 2009

Highlights and controversies: Lewinsky scandal:

Newsweek reporter Michael Isikoff was the first reporter to investigate allegations of a sexual relationship between U.S. President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, but the editors spiked the story. The story soon surfaced online in the Drudge Report.

Claims of bias:
A 2004 study by Tim Groseclose and Jeff Milyo asserted that Newsweek, along with all other mainstream news outlets except for Fox News and the Washington Times, exhibited a "liberal bias". While liberal media watchdogs described the study as "riddled with flaws," their opposite numbers had similarly commented on Newsweeks alleged liberal bias. Newsweeks Washington Bureau Chief and later Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas variously acknowledged the charge saying, "I think Newsweek is a little liberal," and, in 1996, "there is a liberal bias at Newsweek, the magazine I work for." The magazine has been publishing articles by conservative columnist George F. Will since 1976, when he became a contributing editor, writing a biweekly back page column. As of 2011, Will still writes for Newsweek

Guantnamo Bay allegations:

Main article: Qur'an desecration controversy of 2005. In the May 9, 2005 issue of Newsweek, an article by reporter Michael Isikoff stated that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay "in an attempt to rattle suspects, flushed a Qur'an down a toilet." Detainees had earlier made similar complaints but this was the first time a government source had appeared to confirm the story. The news was reported to be a cause of widespread rioting and massive anti-American protests throughout some parts of the Islamic world (causing at least 15 deaths in Afghanistan). The magazine later revealed that the anonymous source behind the allegation could not confirm that the book-flushing was actually under investigation, and retracted the story under heavy criticism.

Iraq war planning:

Fareed Zakaria, a Newsweek columnist and editor of Newsweek International, attended a secret meeting on November 29, 2001, with a dozen policy makers, Middle East experts and members of influential policy research organizations that produced a report for President George W. Bush and his cabinet outlining a strategy for dealing with Afghanistan and the Middle East in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. The meeting was held at the request of Paul D. Wolfowitz, then the deputy secretary of defense. The unusual presence of journalists, who also included Robert D. Kaplanof The Atlantic Monthly, at such a strategy meeting was revealed in Bob Woodward's 2006 book State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III. Woodward reported in his book that, according to Mr. Kaplan, everyone at the meeting signed confidentiality agreements not to discuss what happened. Mr. Zakaria told The New York Times that he attended the meeting for several hours but did not recall being told that a report for the President would be produced. On October 21, 2006, after verification, the Times published a correction that stated: An article in Business Day on Oct. 9 about journalists who attended a secret meeting in November 2001 called by Paul D. Wolfowitz, then the deputy secretary of defense, referred incorrectly to the participation of Fareed Zakaria, the editor of Newsweek International and a Newsweek columnist. Mr. Zakaria was not told that the meeting would produce a report for the Bush administration, nor did his name appear on the report.

2008 elections:
In the 2008 U.S. presidential election, the John McCain campaign wrote a lengthy letter to the editor criticizing a cover story in May 2008.

Palin & Bachmann covers:

Former Alaska Governor and 2008 Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin was featured on the cover of the November 23, 2009 issue of Newsweek, with the caption "How do you Solve a Problem Like Sarah?" featuring an image of Palin in athletic attire and posing. Palin herself, the Los Angeles Times and other commentators accused Newsweek of sexism for their choice of cover in the November 23, 2009 issue discussing Palin's book, Going Rogue: An American Life. "It's

sexist as hell," wrote Lisa Richardson for the Los Angeles Times. Taylor Marsh of The Huffington Post called it "the worst case of pictorial sexism aimed at political character assassination ever done by a traditional media outlet." David Brody of CBN News stated: "This cover should be insulting to women politicians." The cover includes a photo of Palin used in the August 2009 issue of Runner's World. The photographer may have breached his contract with Runner's World when he permitted its use in Newsweek, as Runner's World maintained certain rights to the photo until August 2010. It is uncertain, however, whether this particular use of the photo was prohibited. Minnesota Republican Congresswoman and Presidential Candidate Michele Bachmann were featured on the cover of Newsweek magazine in August 2011, dubbed "the Queen of Rage". The photo of her was perceived as unflattering, as it portrayed her with a wide eyed expression some said made her look "crazy. Sources called the depiction "sexist",[48] and Sarah Palin denounced the publication. Newsweek defended the cover's depiction of her, saying its other photos of Bachmann showed similar intensity.

Contributors and reporters:

Notable regular contributors to Newsweek include:

Steven Levy. Jonathan Alter. Stryker McGuire. David Ansen (film critic). Eleanor Clift. David Gates. Anna Quindlen. Robert J. Samuelson. George Will.

Newsweek Pakistan:

Newsweek Pakistan, the country's largest circulation newsmagazine and premier news source. With the planned September launch of its Pakistan edition, Newsweek magazine is the latest publication to join Pakistan's media revolution, according to MediaBistro.com. Newsweek Pakistan will be the first licensed international news magazine for the country and the eighth local edition under the Washington Post Co.-owned Newsweek brand.

Newsweek Pakistan Edition :

Newsweek Pakistan will be published under license by AG Publications, a privately-owned media company in Pakistan. Fasih Ahmed, who has reported for The Wall Street Journal and Newsweek International, will be the editor of Newsweek Pakistan. Ahmed won a New York Press Club award in 2008 for Newsweek's coverage of the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Initially, there will be 30,000 copies of Pakistan edition printed each week.

References:

Brown, Tina (November 11, 2010). "Daily Beast, Newsweek to Wed!". The Daily sBeast. Retrieved November 12, 2010. Grove, Peter; Lloyd Grove (August 3, 2010). "How Newsweek Blew It". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2010-08-03. America's 60 Families by Ferdinand Lundberg. Newsweek magazine is sold by Washington Post". BBC News. 2 August 2010. Retrieved 03 August 2010. A Smaller But Better Newsweek?". Howard Kurtz. The Washington Post, May 18, 2009. Ahrens, Frank (August 3, 2010). "Harman Media buys Newsweek from Washington Post Co. for Undisclosed Amount". The Washington Post. Retrieved 02 August 2010.