Layoffs Hit Newsweek's Editorial Staff /

Daily Beast, Washington Post Considers Charging for Website

Layoffs Hit Newsweek's Editorial Staff

By ERIK MAZA

http://www.wwd.com/

CUTS KEEP COMING: Layoffs in the media world continued to flow Thursday when Newsweek, as expected, joined the crowd. 

"The sad moment has arrived when we must go forth with the editorial staff reductions," Tina Brown told the staff of Newsweek and the Daily Beast in a memo. 

The cuts are necessary to lower overhead costs as Newsweek eliminates its print edition and moves to an all-digital format. The number of total layoffs wasn't available - a spokesman declined comment - but at least three editors left on their own, Capital New York first reported. 

This week, as many magazines got ready for their holiday parties, it was already looking grim.The Daily ended its run, putting in jeopardy 100 positions, and The New York Times asked for 30 buyouts from senior managers; reportedly, 30 more had already been cut on the business side. 

These reductions follow a series made in the second half at The Daily, where 50 people - a third of the staff - were cut in August. Then came 60 at Cond� Nast, across all titles. Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia cut 70 staffers at its two magazines, Whole Living and Everyday Food. 


Hearst Magazines axed a number of positions as it consolidated the editorial staffs of Elle Decor, House Beautiful and Veranda. All the layoffs at the shelter magazines - less than 10 - were announced in October, though the last day of these staffers is coming up Dec. 21. As part of the consolidation to lower expenses, several high-level veterans - at least one executive editor and one editor at large - will now serve all three brands in the group, while others were reduced to freelancers. There was concern among some staffers that more layoffs are likely, but a spokeswoman denied this, saying all the cuts already happened months ago. Although the fourth quarter is a time for staff downsizing, magazines have gotten a modicum of religion and decided some time ago that no one would get cut between Thanksgiving and Christmas. That's holding up again this year. 

"No one will be asked to leave before Dec. 31 (and many will stay at least into mid-January)," Brown said in her memo. 

After that, everyone's out of luck. 

New York Times managers have until Jan. 24 to decide on the buyout offer. At Time Inc., which lost nearly 6 percent in revenue in the third quarter, layoffs are widely anticipated sometime in mid-January. Martha Stewart put Whole Living on the block, and if sold, the money-losing magazine is likely to reduce staff further. 

On Wednesday, Jack Kliger, the former GQ publisher and publishing veteran, did not dismiss reports he was interested in buying Whole Living. 

"I think Whole Living's a wonderful property, but we'll see," he said, while attending a benefit for the Circle of Generosity Foundation, which was founded by Hearst's Michael Clinton. "I'm really not in a position to comment on it."

Daily Beast Considers Charging for Website

By Edmund Lee 

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Newsweek/Daily Beast Co., the media company founded by Tina Brown and backed by billionaire Barry Diller, is considering charging readers for access to its Daily Beast website for the first time.

The New York-based company, which merged with Newsweek magazine last year, is contemplating a shift to so-called metered access, spokesman Andrew Kirk said. That approach, used by the New York Times and other publications, typically lets readers see a number of stories for free and then charges for anything beyond that.

"Like many other media companies, we are exploring metered access down the line," Kirk said in an interview.

The proposal would follow a decision to cut staff and cease publication of Newsweek as a print magazine, ending the weekly's eight-decade run. The last print edition in the U.S. will be the Dec. 31 issue.

The company, a unit of Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI), plans to reintroduce Newsweek as an electronic publication -- with paying subscribers -- early next year. The idea is to capitalize on the growth of e-readers and tablets such as Apple Inc.'s iPad.

While some of the magazine's content will still be available on the Daily Beast site, Newsweek's shift to a paid- subscription model may put more pressure on the Daily Beast to do the same. Visitors to Newsweek and Daily Beast are currently directed to the same Web address, making it difficult to impose restrictions on just one of the publications.

Brown, who serves as the Daily Beast's editor-in-chief, founded the company with Diller in 2008 as a hub for Internet news and commentary. Brown was previously the editor of Vanity Fair, theNew Yorker and Talk.

Since then, IAC's media operations have been a drag on the company's results. The division that includes the Daily Beast lost $13.2 million last quarter.

Both the Daily Beast and Newsweek newsrooms are cutting jobs today, Brown said in a memo to staff. Newsweek was on track to lose $22 million this year before plans to close the print edition were announced, a person familiar with the matter said earlier this year.

Washington Post Plans a Paywall

By KEACH HAGEY

http://online.wsj.com/ 

The Washington Post, one of the last holdouts against the trend of charging readers for online access to newspaper articles, is likely to reverse that decision in 2013, according to people familiar with the matter.

While details are being finished, people familiar with the matter said that a metered paywall-meaning a website that allows casual readers to read a certain number of stories free before charging a subscription fee -- is likely to be rolled out in 2013, along with increases to the print newspaper's newsstand price. One person familiar with the matter said the paywall will be introduced no earlier than next summer.

The Post is dealing with a steep decline in its core business of print advertising. Its newspaper division reported an operating loss of $56.3 million for the first nine months of the year, reflecting a 14% decline in revenue to $160.7 million. The company lost its chief revenue officer in the spring, and the search for a replacement continues.

Most other newspapers in the country, including the New York Times and Gannett Co.'s  local papers, have introduced paywalls in the past year or so, generating increased circulation revenues that offset print advertising losses. But among major newspapers, the Post has stood almost alone in its decision to keep its website free. The Wall Street Journal's website has always had a paywall.

Don Graham, the chairman of Washington Post Co., has long argued that the Post's unique position as a locally distributed paper with a national online readership makes it ill-suited for a paywall. He reiterated that view during a UBS investor conference earlier this week, noting that Post had robust digital advertising revenue that a paywall would threaten. But, noting that former Washington Post Co. board members and longtime Graham family friend Warren Buffett was a supporter of paywalls, he left the door open a crack to the possibility of adding one at the Post.

"We are obviously looking at paywalls of every type," he said. "But the reason we haven't adopted them yet is that we haven't found one that actually adds profits immediately. But we're going to continue to study every model of paywall and think about that, as well as thinking about keeping it free."

Tensions over budgets contributed to a recent shake-up of the Post's editorial leadership, with executive editor Marcus Brauchli stepping down and Boston Globe editor Marty Baron replacing him at the end of the year. At the time, Katharine Weymouth, the Post's publisher, said the paywall debate had no bearing on the move, but added in an interview, "We've always been open to it."

Ms. Weymouth didn't reply to a request for comment.

People familiar with the Post's thinking point to the success of the New York Times's recent paywall program, which was introduced about 18 months ago and now has more than 500,000 digital subscribers. It has helped the company's newspapers' circulation revenue eclipse their advertising revenue, as part of the impetus for the Post's change of heart.

Indeed, Mr. Graham called the Times's paywall model "intelligently conceived" during the UBS conference this week.