Psst — in case you haven’t noticed, Tina Brown’s revamp of Newsweek hit the stands today.
With remarkably little fanfare, the star editor has finally slipped her name into the masthead of the struggling, 78-year-old weekly, nearly four months after it was merged with her Daily Beast Web site.
“It’s a new day — and, we hope, a new era,” Brown said in a letter to readers that notably lacked her signature bravado. She added that this week’s issue “was produced by a still-evolving team of editors, writers and photographers.”
Brown was reportedly aiming to re-launch the magazine — which this week sports Hillary Clinton on its cover — ahead of her “Women in the World” summit, which begins later this week in Manhattan.
Indeed, there’s much about this week’s issue that looks like a rushed-out work in progress. The pages are thicker and glossier and many of them bear Brown’s stylish stamp. The issue’s focus on “Women Who Shake the World” makes a compelling theme, and Brown even appears to have corralled columnist Niall Ferguson into focusing on women’s rights this week.
Still, the magazine hasn’t clearly defined its sections or fully sorted out its jumble of columnists. One of them, the economist Robert J. Samuelson, isn’t given a headshot, leading us to wonder whether he missed an appointment with the sketch artist or is on the way out.
Brown has signaled that keeping a lid on costs will be a priority, as 92-year-old stereo tycoon Sidney Harman — who rescued Newsweek last fall — reportedly has said he can’t afford to lose more than $40 million over the next three years.
Indeed, Brown appears to be still haunted by the flop of Talk magazine, which closed less than two years after its super-hyped launch in 1999.
After shelling out big bucks at Talk to luminaries like Norman Mailer, Brown is relying more on lesser-known names at Newsweek.
Former New Yorker reporter Peter J. Boyer is an exception, which is why it was surprising to see his excellent story about the odd friendship between New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Newark Mayor Cory Booker run only one page.