ATTEMPTS by Newsweek CEO Tom Ascheim and Editor-in-Chief Jon Meacham to reshape the magazine into a lower-circulation weekly with a more Economist-like feel do not seem to be paying off.
Tucked in the fourth-quarter earnings report from parent Washington Post Company were numbers that suggest the magazine lost $28.1 million in 2009, the first year of the process.
The company said its magazine unit — encompassing only Newsweek and the recently divested Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel — lost $29.3 million last year, as revenue declined by 27 percent to $184.2 million.
Budget Travel was responsible for a loss of $1.2 million on revenue of $18.7 million.
Ascheim said that he expected losses in 2009, but the situation was made worse by the economy.
“The fourth quarter was actually our best quarter of the year as we repositioned to a more upscale, news-hungry audience,” he said. “We expect to have significantly smaller losses in 2010 than in 2009 and we still expect to be back to break-even in 2011.”
The full year included a one-time early retirement charge of $6.6 million for 44 Newsweek employees.
Since Newsweek lowered its circulation — from 2.6 million to 1.5 million — it was forced to make corresponding cuts in its ad rates. The company hopes that lower production, distribution and employee costs will eventually enable it to return to profitability.
Less Nielsen
The bust-up of Nielsen Business Media is expected to continue today.
Employees of the company’s travel group, which includes Business Travel News, Meeting News Magazine, Successful Meetings Magazine and Incentive Magazine, will reportedly be told at a com pany meeting that the unit is being sold to North Star Pub lishing. The deal is expected to close this month.
The Secaucus, NJ-based North Star is headed by Thomas Kemp, who took over as CEO a year ago and has been on the prowl for reasonably priced trade ti tles.
Sources said that North Star will keep at least three of the magazines going in print. A fourth will survive as a Web brand.
Andy Bilbao, the senior vice president of Nielsen Business Media who is said to be handling the divestments, declined to comment.
He did, however, confirm that the company pulled the plug on Training magazine Tuesday, laying off 11 people.
In December the company sold The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard and the Adweek group to e5 Global Media, which is backed by an investment company headed by Jimmy Finkelstein.
Editor & Publisher and Kirkus Reviews, which Nielsen planned to shut down because buyers couldn’t be found for either title, were rescued at the last minute in January.
Expense-ive
Condé Nast’s billionaire chairman, S.I. Newhouse Jr., may have plugged a money leak in his company.
A Condé Nast staffer resigned this week, apparently after the company launched a probe into allegations the person pocketed cash advances instead of using them for expenses.
Chief Operating Officer John Bellando, who oversees the company’s new anti-fraud hotline, initially told insiders that there was nothing to the accusations.
But last Friday, there was a flurry of closed door meetings and scrambles for receipts at the company, sources said.
According to the buzz inside 4 Times Square, the alleged scam could have been going on for a long time. But the company was said to be looking at only the past six months.
To hide the pilfering, the person allegedly had lower-level staffers take out cash advances.
The person would list the money as going for petty cash and “tips,” for which receipts are gen erally not required. The money was said to have added up to five figures over the course of a year.
One source said the staffer resigned rather than have a cloud of suspicion hang over them.
Others said the probe at the company is ongoing.
A company spokeswoman confirmed only the individual resigned.
Union bust
The US Attorney’s Office said that it has expanded its investigation of an allegedly corrupt union official to at least one other accomplice, who remains unnamed.
Wayne Mitchell, former president of the Communication Workers of America Local 14170 — also known as Mailers Local 6 — was accused last month of embezzling more than $200,000 from the union during his long run as boss, which ended with his resignation in 2006.
On Wednesday, he pleaded not guilty at his arraignment.
The union represents plant workers at the city’s three major pa pers, The New York Times, the Daily News and the New York Post.
A whistleblower was said to have gone to the Department of Labor in 2006 with the allegation that Mitchell had put fake employees on the union payroll. He resigned shortly thereafter for “health reasons.”
The union’s HQ appointed a temporary administrator who resigned last year under murky circumstances. A second temporary administrator is now running the local.
Mitchell’s attorney, Wayne Weissman, did not return a call seeking comment.
Correction: We misstated the surname of the editor of the Hollywood Reporter in the Feb. 24 Media Ink. She is Elizabeth Guider, not Geiter. keith.kelly@nypost.com