Column: A Beastly Newsweek

RESOURCE

TINA BROWN: NPR
Merger of ‘The Daily Beast’ and ‘Newsweek’

WEBSITES SHOULD… Break News

Weekly and Monthly Publications Should… Go In-Depth and Focus on the Future

After a year of discussing how a website and the old paper should work together I found the above podcast very useful for students to listen to and discuss.

Tina Brown gives a simple run down of what she is going to try and do with The Daily Beast and Newsweek.

Basically, she says that websites break news and give the instant gratification in various formats, while the weekly or monthly print publication provide the in-depth coverage and focus on future events.

The focus on the future events to remain timely is what I think it is all about for print.   Student publications and professional magazines that look ahead are still really interesting to read.  What ESPN: The Magazine is doing with hardly any factual coverage of sporting events is also another example of how print is changing.

Brown was also preaching to the choir a bit on this issue for me.  From the beginning, I optimistically saw the website and print publication working well together and for the most part it is a symbiotic relationship.

What I see changing dramatically because of this new relationship are print publications.  Websites look very much like the old news section, while print publications are making huge changes to try and stay alive.

This new relationship between ‘Newsweek’ and ‘The Beast’ hopefully will provide a few more teachable examples as well as a profitable business model.  Brown gave it a year and a half to be in the black.  It will be a great sign for journalism if this happens.