Nancy Gibbs, Time magazine’s newly-named managing editor -- and the first woman to hold that position -- takes the reins at an uncertain time in the publication's history.
The weeks-long battle between Time Warner Cable and CBS that is keeping the network’s programming from being shown in major markets comes down to the all-important question of retransmission fees.
The latest data on local television economics offers mixed messages: increasing revenue from news programming but cuts in newsroom budgets.
In a difficult advertising environment for the magazine industry overall, newly-released numbers from the Association of Magazine Media (MPA) show the nation’s news magazines being hit particularly hard.
After a few very difficult years, Newsweek magazine, which sold for $1 three years ago, may be up for sale again. A Pew Research Center analysis of news magazine economics in the past half dozen years finds that in a difficult period for newsweeklies in general, the turmoil and decline at Newsweek has been particularly noteworthy.
The long slow decline in viewership of local television news resumed in 2012 after a brief respite the previous year. While stations devoted more of their available air time to local news, that wasn’t sufficient to halt the decline in viewership. Early-morning newscasts continued to gain viewers, but that increase was more than offset by losses in most other time slots.
Amid the broad decline of the magazine industry in recent years, news magazines have been among the hardest hit. That trend continued in 2012 for the six publications analyzed by the Pew Research Center, Time and Newsweek, as well as four smaller niche publications – The Economist, The Atlantic, The Week and The New Yorker. Ad pages for the group fell by an average of 10.4% in 2012, about 25% greater than the 8.2% slide experienced by magazines over all.
After years of losing audience and revenue, local television news appears to have settled into a kind of equilibrium. Stations made less income in 2011 than the year before, but the decline was about what might be expected in a non-election year. And the overall audience for local TV news grew as stations added newscasts at different times and on additional platforms, including their digital channels. Local stations also expanded their online, mobile and social media offerings, but most have not yet generated a substantial audience.
Consider it a sign of the times: when Time Inc., the country’s largest magazine publisher, went looking for a new chief executive officer last year, it turned to an expert in digital advertising. In December 2011, Time named Laura Lang, then head of digital ad firm Digitas, to run its magazine operation. Lang had no previous background in magazines.
With digital ad revenue projected to overtake all other platforms by 2016, it is the key to the financial future of news. Are news organizations transitioning their legacy advertisers to online platforms? A PEJ report analyzing more than 5,000 ads from 22 news outlets offers answers.
