"The smartest take on last week's news, which is what Newsweek and Time used to be, I don't think that works anymore." "It will be like a monthly coming out weekly," Impoco told Capital.
In an industry where digital ventures suck up most of the excitement, and print has all the reputation of a dying T-Rex, anything with physical pages can tend to have a "boutique" feel. There's even a bit of a dead-tree media renaissance in the growing number of small-scale print startups (including the one you are currently reading) that are taking advantage of the medium's tactile, premium potential, as well as the higher advertising rates and reliable subscription revenue it still commands. Mutter, a media consultant who blogs at Confessions of a Newsosaur, "is whether they can create a product that's so compelling, people will put down their iPads and buy a magazine." (Of course Newsweek's tablet edition, which is said to have several hundred thousand paid subscribers, isn't going anywhere, and its daily website will remain robust, Impoco said.) But the quaint appeal of paper isn't enough to encourage success, especially not for a brand saddled with a recent history of bad press, red ink and tumultuous ownership changes. Impoco, an alumnus of The New York Times and the late Conde Nast Portfolio, is confident that his iteration of Newsweek will fly off the racks. Why? "Because it's good!," the 55-year-old editor gushed. We're breaking a lot of news."Ĭapital got an exclusive first look at the new layout, which was re-imagined top to bottom by designers Robert Priest and Grace Lee. It's a sleek, image-friendly book that opens with several pages of bold news photography under the rubric "Big Shots." The front section, "Page One," favors text-based reportage. "The grazing stuff, we deliberately chucked it," said Impoco. "It's the 1990s playbook." With at least one exception: Newsweek's classic "Conventional Wisdom Watch" has been revived. The feature-well will generally consist of three stories roughly 2,000 to 3,000 words in length. It's followed by "New World," which explores technology, science and medicine, and "Down Time," which closes each issue with a high-low dose of culture, entertainment, food and sports. "All the important stuff you really want to talk about that doesn't feel like work," said Bob Roe, who oversees the section.Ĭynics will inevitably deride Newsweek's print revival as a symptom of atavistic naivete. "Why not re-open Blockbuster stores while we're at it?," Mediaite columnist Joe Concha snarled when news of the resurrection broke in December.
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