June 02, 2010 05:24 AM UTC

How to save Newsweek (and The Denver Post)

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• by: DavidThi808

Newsweek is up for sale, and not because it’s raking in the bucks. Quality news-media has not learned how to make a profit in a world where people come on articles via links and expect content to be free. Yet there clearly is a demand for quality reporting and a way to monetize it will be found. The question is how.

Here’s an approach that, I think, will make Newsweek financially successful on the web.  

At present Newsweek takes its content and pushes it up on the web. Yes there is an organization to the website and some articles are placed above others, but at root it’s a webpage with the layout determined by the latest content created. Now compare that to the print issue which has a format that has been refined over decades. That format is partially due to the limitations of a print format. But it is also due in large measure to determining how readers want to be presented with the articles. Yet the decades of experience that led to the print format has been discarded. Why?

Suggestion 1: Deliver the magazine in a layout similar to the print magazine, with the short articles, then the cover article, then the columnists, etc. And here’s the key part, when I have read an article, or mark it as not interesting, it is discarded from “my” copy of the magazine. So my copy is laid out in the format that works so well, but is composed of the articles I have not yet read.

Instead of sitting down weekly to read the latest issue, I pull it up at my convenience. And when I do, I have it custom built for what is not yet read, but I retain the benefit of getting it in a format that works best for a newsweekly. (And this same approach can be used by newspapers, other magazines, etc.) What’s key here is the content is based on what I have read, not on what is newest when I go to the Newsweek site.

Suggestion 2: Track what each person finds interesting and what articles they mark not interesting. For example, I will never read an article on sports – so why are those articles in “my” copy of Newsweek? Include rating the quality of the articles (goodbye Anna Quindlen), the subject interest of articles (goodbye sports), and the topicality of articles (if I don’t read a review of a movie within a week, drop it).

By customizing the magazine for me, by subject, by author, by topicality, you are now delivering a product vastly superior product to what I will get from randomly picking articles due to links on various sites. I get the advantages of the editorial decisions at Newsweek without the disadvantages of a one size fits all product.

Suggestion 3: Leave the existing website free but charge for the above two features. All of us that subscribe can post links to specific articles, bringing in more potential customers. But to get the better layout and content customized to the specific person – that costs. You also should offer it at two prices, ad-free and with ads.

Additional Advantage: For the ad version, you can give advertisers focused delivery. Reading habits and preferences can be tied to what products and what message they will find interesting. Advertisers will pay major bucks to present their ads to people who are interested in their products. For example, an ad for an upcoming Meryl Streep movie can be shown to people who read the movie reviews regularly and highly rate columns that discuss relationship issues.

I think this approach would be easy to sell. Just ask existing readers if they would like their weekly magazine, delivered just the same online, but constantly updated and without the parts they find uninteresting. You’re offering a product that is a direct improvement to people presently paying for the product. And include it for free for anyone buying the print edition.

First posted at How to save Newsweek (and newspapers)