Newsweek to be back in print in January

The print edition of global current affairs weekly Newsweek, that was considered the closest rival to Time,  will be resurrected under its new owners, who think that they can revive the weekly in the US market where publishers are shutting down print editions almost by the month.

Newsweek had closed its print edition last year. On Tuesday, IBT Media, an obscure media company that bought Newsweek in August (See: Newsweek being sold to digital publisher IBT Media), said that it intends to revive the magazine's print edition early next year, possibly as soon as January.

The magazine expects to begin a 64-page weekly edition in January or February, according to Jim Impoco, Newsweek's editor in chief.

Impoco said in an interview that Newsweek would depend more heavily on subscribers than advertisers to pay its bills; and the magazine would cost more than in the past.

''It's going to be a more subscription-based model, closer to what The Economist is compared to what Time magazine is,'' Impoco said. ''We see it as a premium product, a boutique product.''

The announcement is a remarkable twist in Newsweek's evolution, coming less than a year after its previous owner, IAC, stopped printing the magazine.

The brand was generally thought to be as good as dead - the cover of IAC's final Newsweek edition carried the phrase "#LastPrintIssue" rendered as a Twitter hashtag. But now the obituary seems premature.

IBT Media's decision is at odds with a general magazine industry move away from print and toward the Web, at least when it comes to the kind of news coverage that the Newsweek brand is known for.

Impoco, who became Newsweek's editor in chief shortly after IBT Media acquired it, said "ads will be icing" for the reborn print edition of the magazine. Subscriber revenues will cover expenses because "we won't charge less than it costs to produce".

Impoco added, "The new owners, Johnathan Davis and Etienne Uzac, are digital natives who saw a great journalistic and commercial opportunity in print. And I'm so glad they suggested it."

Most of the print material will presumably be repurposed from Newsweek.com, the website that Impoco oversees, which includes a once-a-week online "magazine" that looks and feels a lot like a printed one. All of that is free currently. Enticing former Newsweek subscribers or new readers to pay for it in print will be a stiff challenge.

But the new print edition will attract some attention, if only for its name and journalistic legacy. Publications like The Economist have proven that there is still some room in the marketplace for thoughtful recaps of the week's news.

Asked what readers of the previous Newsweek print edition would recognise about the new one, Impoco said, "The new Newsweek will be deeply reported and global, which is what it was when it first came out 80-odd years ago and is what it should be now."

Newsweek's return to print is a positive sign for a magazine that struggled mightily in the digital age. At its height in 1991, the magazine had 3.3 million readers. In 2010, Newsweek's owner, The Washington Post Co, sold it to the billionaire investor Sidney Harman for $1. Harman, who also assumed $40 million in liabilities, then merged it with The Daily Beast, the website owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp (See: Newsweek to merge with the Daily Beast).

The editor Tina Brown took control of the combined titles, but the venture failed. The traditional Newsweek never properly blended with The Daily Beast. Brown announced in October 2012 that Newsweek would no longer publish a magazine, saving $40 million a year, and would continue as an online-only magazine called Newsweek Global (See: Newsweek to end print edition and go online in New Year).

In May, Brown announced that IAC/InterActiveCorp planned to sell Newsweek so that it could focus its attention on The Daily Beast. IBT Media bought it in August; and in September, Brown stepped down from The Daily Beast and said she was leaving publishing entirely.

Impoco, who became Newsweek's editor in September, said that the magazine's new owner would not have to spend as much money publishing it as its predecessor. He said that IBT was negotiating with printers and distributors, and hoped that it would build its circulation to 100,000 in the first year.

Since taking the helm, Impoco, a former editor at The New York Times, has made more than two dozen new hires and is looking to expand international coverage.