Sole Survivor

Brandweek, Oct 25, 1999 by Alicia Mundy

On the business side, there's a potential "deal" that Smith won't discuss. And a sure winner: more regular specials, especially on "E Life"--the Internet and cyberspace. Smith's innovative use of special outlets actually makes Newsweek a stronger competitor in the long term, according to some media buyers. Harlan Schwarz of McCann-Erickson in New York says advertisers might prefer Newsweek's independence and its careful choice of special-focus issues, the way it brands itself in the health, women's and family categories.

In addition, buyers might be keen on Newsweek's ability to make relationships with specific, demographic-targeted TV shows or outlets such as ESPN The Magazine and PBS. "Buyers won't be hampered by having to deal with The Family" he explains. "Newsweek can tell buyers, 'If it's available off the shelf, fine, but we can custom create a deal for you.' That might be more valuable."

But some analysts are still pondering a few of Smith's ideas--sporadic ventures into selective binding, cluster marketing with targeted editorial content, a late-blooming Teen Newsweek for school distribution. And while Time is luring younger demo groups with columnists straight out of college, is Anna Quindlen, popular with femmes d'un age certain, what advertisers want?

It's what Smith wants right now. He's the one who called Quindlen. "I said no, but he told me not to answer until he returned from a week's trip to Japan," Quindlen explains. Then, he threatened not to return until she said yes.

Graham applauds the Quindlen triumph for both editorial and business reasons. "She was a very smart choice for Newsweek," he says, then adds, "I want Rick to stay there a long time." In the end, says Graham, "the magazine has to have something that makes people read it. That's what Rick has delivered."

Smith seems pretty unfazed by the competition with Time. But according to sources there, Time wants to avoid comparisons to Newsweek--or reminders that Time is one of the lumpen-weeklies. There's a move to develop Time in the manner of The New Yorker.

"Great," says Smith, snorting at the suggestion that to be a newsweekly is to be second-class. "If Time wants to be another New Yorker, with less than a million circulation, losing money every year, so be it. Tell them I wish them luck in the small-magazine category.