Newsweek Mulls Dramatic Drop in Circulation

Media: In the days of doom and gloom its bright spots like this that fill me with righteous glee.

Facing increased costs of postage and maintaining its circulation, Newsweek has been quietly considering a drop its circulation guarantee by a million copies or more, FOLIO: has learned. Executives at Newsweek began discussing a rate base rollback as early as this summer, according to a pair of sources familiar with these discussions. Both sources say that the magazine is considering slashing up to 1.6 million copies from Newsweek’s current rate base of 2.6 million, which would put the magazine’s rate base at 1 million. Newsweek declined to comment. “A million [rate base] was the extreme,” said the source. But, as the year wore on, and the economic crisis worsened, “[they] didn’t see a recovery.” ‘Thought Leader’ Aside from the cost of maintaining such a high circulation, Newsweek would like to transition from newsmagazine to “thought leader,” something more akin to the Economist. “[Editor Jon] Meacham and [Time editorial director Richard] Stengel are both infatuated with the Economist,” the source said. “To get that ‘thought leader’ position, a million is the sweet spot.” The Economist’s rate base in North America is 714,000.

This is akin to NBC cutting back on its programming to cut costs and somehow that will make them more robust in its offerings to the viewers, which means it makes no sense. Newsweek and Time do not have the leadership or talent to be a thought leader.