24 May 2009 The Problems of Time and Newsweek

Michael Kinsey has quite a takedown of the “new” Newsweek in the old New Republic, but he’s very clear on one point: he dislikes Time more.

In my view, the only thing that would save either Time or Newsweek in the long run is really top-flight, undercovering-new-facts reporting on fast-breaking issues. People don’t need news recaps any more. They have little reason to pay for access to opinion columns, or cutsey, gossipy short pieces.

The problem is the magazines face is that this kind of reporting is hard to do. Hard to research, hard to write, hard to edit. And even if the owners of either Time or Newsweek agreed with me and were willing to try the business model I suggest, it is unclear that the modern mainstream media has enough true journalists available to staff and maintain the truly high-quality newsroom that would be required.