After a year back in print, Newsweek in black
ONEyear after the embattled News week returned to print as a small run-weekly, EditorinChief Jim Impoco has apparently done something that eluded previous high flying editors Tina Brown and Jon Meacham: He’s posting a small profit.
“We are in the black,” said Impoco. The magazine had lost more than $40 million over the two year period leading up to its sale by the Washington Post for $1 to Sidney Harman in 2010.
Harman quickly discovered how expensive it could be, and put together a hasty merger with Barry Diller’s IAC/ InterActiveCorp.
Brown, who already had The Daily Beast up and running for Diller, was tapped to add the Newsweek editor job to her résumé.
Problems ensued. Diller and Brown, after investing much in their Daily Beast Web venture, shut down what was arguably the better known Web destination and made Newsweek.com default to the Daily Beast.
Harman died only months into the merger and his widow, former Congresswoman Jane Harman, had no appetite for investing boatloads of cash in the moneylosing magazine.
Diller, forced to go it alone in 2012, decided to convert it into a digitalonly product. He soon grew tired of the steady flow of red ink and sold in 2013 to the small and unknown IBT Media.
“They clearly thought they were selling us off for scrap pieces,” said Impoco, who was hired as editor by the new owners and was down to “less than 30 editorial staffers” at Newsweek as most of the remaining veterans were laid off.
A year ago, in March 2014, Newsweek returned to a print product — with a small circulation and high cover price.
Today, he says, there are “about 60 editorial staffers, and we plan to increase to close to 100 in the next year.”
Last month, he signed a twoyear production deal with Aspire Entertainment.
Aspire CEO Mark Ciardi is also the producer of the latest Kevin Costner flick, “McFarland, USA.“
Ciardi is also big on sports stories after his involvement in “Miracle,” “Million Dollar Arm” and “The Rookie.”
He told Variety that heis hoping the Newsweek connection brings Aspire beyond just sports.
The circulation is still small. Impoco put it at just “over 100,000.”
The profit, too, is small, Impoco concedes. He would not disclose the amount, but indicated it was “six figures.”
“We’re investing it back into the product, but we’re making money.”
New People boss?
Former Fox and News Corp executive Richard Battista is said to bethe frontrunner to be named to the newly created position of president of the People and Entertainment Weekly Group at TimeInc.
Battista in February 2013 became the CEO of Mandalay Sports Media, a joint venture with Peter Guber and Mike Tollin whose aim was to produce sportsthemed programming for the big screen, the small screen and digital properties.
Time Inc. CEO Joe Ripp is under pressure to have People succeed, since it generates 20 percent of the company’s$3.3 billion in total revenue and is believed to be responsible for close to half of its $180 million in operating income.
In print, People is down markedly over the past year when it comes to circulation, advertising and digital traffic.
People StyleWatch was moved out of the weekly’s group and placed under Ariel Foxman, editor of InStyle Group.
Earlier this week, Lisa Arbetter, deputy editor of In Style, was named editor of StyleWatch — replacing launch Editor Susan Kaufman, who was given the old heaveho in January as part of the ongoing restructuring efforts.
Ripp wants People pushing g aggressively onto new platforms. Battista does have some print in his blood.
Earlier in Battista’s career, from 2004 to 2008, he was the CEO of GemstarTV Guide.
He did not return calls seeking comment by press time.
Mort says zip
Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman popped by the lobby of 21st Century Fox and News Corp. enroute to an appearance on a Fox News Channel show — but Zuckerman was not too chatty when approached by Media Ink.
Asked if he could give a timetable for a possible sale of his Daily News, he said, “All I can give you is 50 cents to buy ThePost.”
When informed that the paper’s price on weekdays has been $1 for the past year — less than the $1.25 price for his sleepy tabloid — he said, “That’s right. And all I am giving you is 50 cents.”
Whenasked how many parties had expressed interest, he declined to comment.
Asked if there was a front runner, he turned to a woman standing to his rright and said, “She is the front runner.”
Sources have said that the process is likely to be a “long, slow slog.”
One source said it would be June at the earliest before Zuckerman would get close to a resolution on his attempt to sell the moneylosing paper.
John Catsimatidis, the grocery store mogul, is currently the only known person kicking the tires at Zuckerman’s paper.