Tina Brown told staffers in a town hall meeting last week that the company name is changing from the rather clunky Newsweek Daily Beast to simply News Beast.
And what of the Newsweek subscribers whom Brown was hoping to entice to continue reading a weekly edition of Newsweek Global on their iPad once the print edition stopped in December?
A News Beast spokesman insisted that “hundreds of thousands” are on board for the weekly tablet edition.
That may be, but at least some of the names on the Newsweek subscription list have been sold to its one-time hated rival, Time, which Ink has learned is offering to fulfill some of the subscriptions.
One source estimate that there are probably around 150,000 names on the sold-off list.
“With the closing of Newsweek’s print magazine, we are writing to inform you that all unmailed issues remaining in your Newsweek subscription will be honored by a subscription to TIME magazine,” said a letter received by some Newsweek subscribers last week.
Time declined to comment.
A News Beast spokesman said that Web traffic has not been hurt. Daily Beast, which is still the name of the website, had 15.2 million unique visitors in January, which was the second biggest in its history — behind only the 18.2 million in November.
Newsweek had 1.4 million print subscribers. With a few hundred thousand on Newsweek Global and an estimated 150,000 being offered Time subscriptions, it appears there may still be more than 1 million names up for grabs.
Happy Hearst
Hearst Corp. doesn’t break out sales numbers, but once a year Chairman and CEO Frank Bennack Jr. gives a few clues.
Based on a letter released earlier this week to employees, sources estimate that annual revenues for the magazine, newspaper and television giant have reached $9.2 billion, up by nearly $1 billion from a year earlier.
Bennack disclosed that the 125-year-old media giant is enjoying its “third consecutive year of record profit growth coming out of the great recession.”
“In my years at Hearst, we have diversified so broadly that our 2012 revenue will be nicely split between print and electronic media,” said Bennack. “Digital revenue alone will approach the company’s total revenue in our centennial year, 1987.”
He continued, “Our profits have more than doubled over the last 10 years — they’re about nine times greater than 25 years ago.”
Back in 1987, Forbes had estimated Hearst’s revenue at $2.1 billion and cash flow at $338 million. If accurate, that means its digital operations today are bringing in $2.1 billion annually and corporate cash flow is running at around $3 billion.
Of course, one of the biggest drivers of its growth is Hearst’s 20 percent stake in ESPN, which did not even get a corporate shout-out.
ESPN, which is 80 percent owned by Disney, is estimated by SNL Kagan to have achieved $8.2 billion in revenue in 2012, which means that Hearst’s share would be $1.6 billion.
Bennack had tepid praise for the magazine division — run for the past two years by David Carey. That unit clearly includes some trouble spots offset by stellar performers such as Cosmopolitan and Elle. “Hearst Magazines achieved its best results in several years,” Bennack said.
Bennack is in his second tenure as CEO and at some point is expected to formally hand the reins to Chief Operating Officer Steve Swartz, who was promoted last year.
Bennack turns 80 next month, but made no mention of a transition in his note to employees.
Rodale games
At Rodale, insiders are calling a new round of cutbacks the company’s version of “The Hunger Games.”
On Jan. 11, all business and production employees were called into conference rooms and told that the company was restructuring. Many jobs were eliminated and the employees affected were told they were free to interview for new jobs that would now replace the old jobs.
“They told about 40 people that they basically lost their jobs,” said one shocked insider, who said employees were instructed to put résumés together and to pitch themselves before a new four-person tribunal, often competing against their former colleagues for the openings.
Staffers were angered that Chairman Maria Rodale did not make the scene, one insider said.
The family-owned company, based in the bucolic hamlet of Emmaus, Pa., insists that technically nobody is being laid off.
“Within the two departments that restructured — finance and operations — there were no layoffs, only two job eliminations, and several people were promoted to higher positions in the process.”
To be sure, some were offered a chance to stay — with a 30 percent pay cut — sources told Media Ink, and may end up telling Rodale to stuff their offer.