Newsweek Takes a Stand: Profits Are for Wimps

Mitt Romney suffers from The Wimp Factor, Newsweek’s oh-so-hip cover helpfully informs us philistines this week.

Of course: Romney started a company that is still profitable. Real men lose millions of dollars a year without any hint of a sustainable business model.

I’m no fan of Mitt Romney or the Republican Party, but I’m even less a fan of amateur psychoanalysis masquerading as journalism. To call the cover story “biased reporting” would be an insult to reporting. It’s all bias and no reporting -- and an insult to Newsweek’s heritage of great political reportage and investigative journalism.

And you thought only amateur bloggers could string together unrelated facts in support of their opinions without doing any real gum-shoeing?

I have a confession to make: I’m writing about the Michael Tomasky cover story without having read it all. I tried, I really did, but somehow I kept dozing off while laboring through this extended expose of the Mittster’s alleged lack of manliness and the insightful commentary about his being “kind of lame.”

Shocking revelation: Romney recently let his wife drive the Jet Ski while he rode on the back. (If Romney were a Democrat, do you suppose Newsweek would have reported that as a sign of an egalitarian marriage? And if Romney were driving the Jet Ski, wouldn’t that be proof that Mormons oppress women?)

Tomasky may have unwittingly helped Romney’s cause among voters like me who are not particularly in love with either candidate or party. (“A seasoned journalist set out to do a hatched job on Romney and this is all he got? Maybe Romney’s not such a bad guy after all.”)

Discussions of wimpiness in the White House do no favors to President Obama. He spent his first two years there as a non-factor until President Pelosi-Reid-Baucus nearly brought the Democratic Party to ruin.

Both men have demonstrated their capability to take decisive action and to lead in difficult situations. It’s their ideologies that concern me.

Related article: What Exactly Did Barry Diller Say About Newsweek's Future?

What Exactly Did Barry Diller Say About Newsweek's Future?

Barry Diller's cryptic comments yesterday about Newsweek have led to much speculation, some misquoting and downright erroneous reporting by the media, and charges of "scaremongering" from editor Tina Brown.

To help clear the waters, here is exactly what Diller, chairman of IAC/InterActiveCorp (Newsweek's majority owner), said about the iconic but money-losing magazine during the company's quarterly earnings call. He was responding to an analyst's question about the expenses IAC took on in acquiring the brand and whether there was "a Plan B to make it perhaps a lighter asset like an online-only business."

Diller's response:

Yes, the consolidation does put us squarely on our heads. We knew this really shortly after Sidney Harmon died that the indication was -- though it wasn't any kind of absolute, nor is it an absolute today -- that the Harmon family didn’t think that they were going to contribute to the losses in the business.

And neither by the way are we going to contribute to the losses of the business as they have been this year. Or investment next year will be considerably less than it is this year. 

Apple and Amazon Deliver Loophole To Consumer Magazines

Don't be surprised if you start seeing special offers soon for magazines' iPad or Kindle Fire versions of their back issues.

Sketchy sales data from Apple and Amazon have led to a new loophole for magazines whose circulation is checked by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The loophole will enable them to bolster the reported circulation numbers of a weak-selling issue with single-copy sales of better-selling issues.

Erratic single-copy sales are the bane of many magazines that guarantee their advertisers a ratebase (a minimum number of copies that are purchased or delivered). By the time a publisher realizes an issue isn’t selling well on the newsstand, it’s too late to do much about it before the issue goes off sale. As a result, many publishers build in a cushion – often an unprofitable one, such as free copies sent to hair salons – to ensure that weak-selling issues don’t miss ratebase.

For printed magazines, ABC is accustomed to publishers providing elaborate reports that document exactly how many copies of an issue were sent to legitimate subscribers or sold to customers. Not so with Apple and Amazon, which don’t provide precise information about the number of paying customers (subscribers and single-copy buyers) per issue.

As a result, ABC has authorized new methods publishers can use when calculating the number of electronic copies served per issue. (No such

Did Verso Come To Purchase NewPage Or To Bury It?

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black: NewPage told a bankruptcy court this week it is reluctant to merge with Verso Paper because of its rival’s high risk of going bankrupt.

But it also revealed an even bigger reason to rebuff Verso’s advances: Rather than engaging in a good-faith effort to forge a union between North America’s two largest makers of magazine-quality paper, NewPage said, Verso’s owners are engaging in “tactics of holdup and delay” to weaken NewPage and hinder its emergence from bankruptcy protection.

NewPage’s bankruptcy case presents Verso “with both significant opportunities and risks,” an attorney representing holders of first-lien debt wrote to the bankruptcy court today.

“On the one hand, Verso’s market position will be greatly improved if Verso is able to acquire NewPage’s assets at fire-sale prices, or if the Debtors fail to successfully reorganize [NewPage],” Dennis F. Dunne wrote.

“On the other hand, Verso is significantly threatened by the possibility