Sidney Harman & Tina Brown
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-04-04/sidney-harman-tina-brown
Newsweek was founded in the depths of the great depression in 1933. Businessman Sidney Harman bought the magazine last year, for just $1. He also assumed more than $40 million in liabilities. The Daily Beast arose during the recession in 2008. The news and opinion website was estimated to be about $10 million a year in the red. Now under a newly formed Newsweek Daily Beast Company, Tina Brown has taken over as editor-in-chief of both publications. Tina Brown and Sidney Harman talk about their joint venture into print and cyberspace and whether it can provide a new model for journalism to succeed in the 21st century.
Guests
Sidney Harman
executive chairman of the Newsweek Daily Beast Company.
Tina Brown
editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast and Newsweek.
Program Highlights
Why did Sidney Harman buy Newsweek?
"Well, in the first place, it was available," the 92 year-old businessman told Diane.
"One of the beauties of reaching this ancient age is that you don't stumble a great deal before deciding something is worth saving. My initial instinct, with respect to Newsweek, was that it was bloody well worth saving."
Given the considerable debt Harman has taken on in purchasing the magazine, Diane asked Tina Brown about the challenges of keeping costs down.
"Actually, I've always lived within a budget," said Brown (who was formerly editor-in-chief at both Vanity Fair and The New Yorker). At Newsweek, Brown said,"the cost had spiraled out of control simply because of the old structures that had been left in place...it was doing things in a way that no longer applied to the modern world."
Several viewers sent in questions wondering if Brown was planning on increasing Newsweek's celebrity coverage. Brown said that although this week's cover features Kate Middleton, Prince William's bride-to-be, Newsweek is primarily a news-focused magazine.
"Every seriously fulfilled life I have encountered in real time of in literature is on examination a balance between the serious and the seductive," Harman added. "The beauty of this combination is that The Daily Beast speaks the language and the tempo of its audience.Newsweek speaks the language and tempo of its. That's what makes for one hell of a combination."
Comments
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The Libyans should be left alone to sort out their own problems. Let what will be be. The rebels should be allowed to organize themselves in what ever way they can. If the Libyan leader terrorizes the people then the people will rise up en-mass and oust the current regime. The west should leave well alone.
Given that she tried to turn the "New Yorker" from a well-written, considered, rigourous magazine willing to (for example) run a multi-part series on the vital issue of the state of the world's serial grains into a celebrity-frottaging bit of "People"oid froth with a frisson of intellectual respectability---enough to make her excesses seem all the worse by comparison---I shouldn't trust her with a weekly advertiser.
"Celebrity" is a disease, both for those enjoying it and those worshipping it---and people do, even though that's as ridiculous as caring about someone else's sex-life. For one thing, it turns attention away from the quality of a job done (editing a magazine) to the degree one is known for having done it
Gerald: Celebrity is a shield and a diversion. Celebrity is an integral aspect of the jackpot mentality: Screw my current interests because I'll soon be rich. Why count our days of grain reserves when we can count Doris Day's rescued dogs? Celebrity sells the frivolous and disposable, on credit.
"Mixing the serious with the seductive" as Billionaire Harmon recommends is a delusional formula often evident in the geriatric. When one observes this confusion in a literary character or in a living person it is tragic, however informative. When one sees in in publication it is propaganda.
How do mergers willy-nilly serve to inform the public? We had just begun to clean up the mess where AOL collided with the Huffington Poo, and now this. Mega-media is becming one big Deathstar anyway. Use the force (people Power), Luke.
Wow, a woman's touch! Will feminine Newsweek marry masculine Time?
Thank you Dr. Harmon for Newsweek! Thank you Tina for the new Newsweek. I look forward to Tuesday's each week, because I know that is when my new print copy of Newsweek will be in my mailbox. I am enjoying the new format, political reporting, international issues, amazing pictures, and omnivore sections. But, I also love political cartoons and hope you will keep them, and I will immediately cancel my subscription if Newsweek becomes a celebrity focused publication.
Thank you, Gerald and Pancake. Exactly my sentiments.
The week that Tiny Brown had full control of Newsweek shifted the magazine to: many short articles (1 page) rather than many of moderate length (1 -3 pages); much more emphasis on people and personalities rather than issues; and much more emphasis on the journalists rather than their subjects. All of these attributes are characteristic of web viewing: assuming readers have only limited time to quickly (and shallowly) update themselves on an issue, rather taking the time to understand somewhat more deeply the issue presented, and personality-focused journalism. Both of these are characteristic of current young people rather than mature ones. (E.g., out of 9 articles listed on the first page of Newsweek.com, 5 focus on either the writer's opinion or on current entertainment - Jerry Weintraub, Whoopi Goldberg, Kate Middleton, Chinese fashionistas, MArtin Sorrell).
Although Tina emphasizes the in-depth news articles, they are few and far between. Maybe this is all about trying to attract young readers - a doubtful proposition given their current proclivities.
The mag IS being dumbed down! Without regard to who wrote it, the article was about Charlie Sheen!
I dropped my subscription to Newsweek because it became "Opinion Week" instead of "News Week." I want news instead of opinion.
It just occurred to me that the difference between paper and screen is that if there's such a compelling image (or collection of them) online that I'd want to print them out, Newsweek might well have them in an affordable form I can carry with me and examine with a convenience and freedom that I can't get by flipping between screens.
As well, large high-resolution screens are heavy, even without the ballast that keeps flat-panel monitors from tipping over too easily.
I haven't subscribed to The Economist, but well might, to Newsweek.
I only recently discovered The Daily Beast, and was very surprised to learn that Tina is its moving spirit. So glad I heard this show!
Finally, I'm typing at the mother of all curb finds, a 21-inch CRT monitor that's so heavy I shouldn't try to lift it (I'm 75). Even at that, it's much smaller than a newspaper page, even in the newer, reduced size.
Best regards!
My husband and I are Newsweek subscribers of many years. We almost cancelled our subscription when the magazine changed to the "new" format prior to the partnership with Tina Brown and the Daily Beast. The previous format was choppy and disjointed and talk about dumbed down! We were thrilled to see the first issue of the "new new" format. Thanks for recuscitating a formerly dying magazine. Good job. We don't like every article - the Brett Easton Ellis piece was horrible (!) - but the vast majority are much, much improved.
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I just heard about the passing of Sidney Harman and immediately thought of the wonderful interview you had with just a week ago. Thank you for bringing such interesting personalities into our daily lives Diane. We will all miss Sidney - even those that only knew him him from afar.