MSM DeathWatch: Newsweek Losing Money, Put up for Sale

I knew this day would come.  A MSM outlet is in the brink of going up in smoke.  I did, however, happen a bit sooner than I expected, but why not?  First on the list for the “pain pill” is Newsweek.  Owned by the WaPo, it’s apparently been gushing cash for a while now, and layoffs and other cost cutting measures have not stopped the bleeding.  For details, here is an excerpt from Breitbart.

NEW YORK (AP) – The Washington Post Co. is putting Newsweek up for sale in hopes that another owner can figure out how to stem losses at the 77-year-old weekly magazine.

While magazines in general have struggled with steep declines in advertising revenue because of the recession, news magazines such as Newsweek face the added pressures from up-to-the-second online news. Once handy digests of the week’s events, they have been assailed by competitors on the Web that pump out a constant stream of news and commentary.

Despite staff cuts, Newsweek has remained a drag on its parent company, which is also struggling with ad declines at its namesake newspaper.

With advertising revenue falling across the industry, Newsweek has been piling up losses since 2007. The company expects those losses to continue this year.

“Newsweek’s staff has been remarkable in cutting expenses and putting out a great magazine,” Post Co. Chairman Donald E. Grahamsustained profitability within the company.” said in an interview. “But we did not see a path to sustained profitability within the company.”

The Post Co.‘s magazine division had an operating loss of $29.3 million last year, compared with a $16.1 million loss the year before. Newsweek sold about 26 percent fewer ad pages in 2009 than the year before, according to the Publishers Information Bureau. That percentage decline was consistent with the industry average.

Now, the MSM will say that the marketplace is changing, and the internet is taking over.  That certainly has a role, but there is obviously more to it than that.  When we consider that Newsweek, like so many media outlets, has been showering Obama and his agenda with praise, attacking and smearing his opponents, and ignoring stories that point out the deficiencies and acts of the left. (they had the Lewinsky story back in the 90′s, and spiked it)

The results? CNN and MSNBC lost 50% of their audience in the first year of Obama’s presidency.  Their ratings continue to plummet to this day.  All three nightly new broadcasts are losing audience as well.  The WaPo has closed offices and laid off staff themselves, and the NY Times, when not disclosing classified information, is leaking cash as well.

Poor, poor, MSM…right?  The media “climate” is changing, and they can’t adapt.  Not entirely!  You see, not all “old media” outlets are failing.  Talk radio, of the Conservative variety, is thriving.  FOX News now has twice the audience of CNN and MSNBS combined.    And print is really dead, right?  Except for the Wall Street Journal.  Their circulation has increased, which one assumes would be the reverse, considering the down economy and the current vilification of capitalism.

That last sentence has the key word, vilification.  The MSM has consistently abandoned their “watchdog” duties.  They have hid information from the people.  They have vilified large segments of the population.  Believe it nor not guys, calling millions of Americans “racist, homophobic, redneck, uneducated, evil, ignorant, unpatriotic, terrorist, seditious, teabaggers” doesn’t make them want to consume your product.  I know, it’s a completely unprecedented idea, but you might want to consider it.

They’re not going to get it.  They never will.  The unreality bubble is pretty difficult to pierce.  The rest of us, however, do understand.  Your lies, exaggerations, bias, and omissions made your readers go away.

As one of those people that you vilify, I can’t feel bad for you.  You brought in on yourselves.  You let ideology trump reality, and now you’re paying the price.