Business

SLIMMER NEWSWEEK HAS MAG STAFF STEAMING

NEWSWEEK staffers have yet to simmer down after last week’s stunning announcement that it was going to radically downsize its circulation, first to 1.9 million by July, and then ultimately to 1.2 million next year.

The reason it’s shedding readers from its current circulation of 2.9 million? Newsweek lost an estimated $20 million, and is on target to lose even more this year.

And the ad picture is equally bleak: Through the Feb. 16 issue, ad pages have plunged 38 percent to 108.9, according to Media Industry Newsletter.

Some Newsweek insiders were disgruntled that they first learned about the new plan in a New York Times article.

The new direction seems to be less ambulance-chasing and more analytical pieces.

“In mid-May, we’ll be launching a new magazine,” said Editor Jon Meacham. “Is it a calculated risk? Absolutely. But it’s a risk worth taking.”

“We’ll be more opinionated, but we aren’t going to be partisan.”

The radical downsizing, and the attempt to drop the mass-circulation appeal, was hatched by CEO Thomas Ascheim.

“There’s no way to know how he’s feeling inside, but [Meacham’s] at least giving lip service to supporting the plan,” noted one insider.

For his part, Meacham said his endorsement is more than lip service.

“I believe in this,” Meacham told Media Ink. “Honestly, if I thought morale was down, I wouldn’t be talking the way I am. Newsweek isn’t alone in facing tough times economically, but we now have a coherent plan for pressing ahead.”

Insiders demoralized by last year’s buyouts of 115 employees are at least taking solace that the latest major change doesn’t mean saying goodbye to more colleagues.

“It’s pretty lean now, you can’t do too much more cutting and keep it going,” said one staffer.

That has not, however, meant the end of all cutbacks.

A rumor posted on Gawker.com, that Newsweek is pulling out of London, is partly on the mark.

There will be no physical Newsweek office in London anymore, ending a tradition that goes back to World War II.

But there will be stringers under contract, and a least some semblance of a Newsweek presence, with a staff of three on the editorial side.

Newsweek isn’t alone in feeling the newsweekly pain.

Time, which cut its circulation to 3.2 million a year ago, was said to have made about $50 million last year. But, its ad health is equally dismal, having sunk 48 percent to a scant 94.4 ad pages through the Feb. 16 issue.

Meanwhile, one-time rival US News & World Report has dropped any pretense of being in the print-weekly game, and is going online, publishing only monthly “best of” guides.

Rumors have been swirling that it may abandon the monthly print version entirely.

Editor Brian Kelly said that’s not true, “for now.”

The magazine started a digital weekly version three weeks ago, and is sending it to subscribers.

“We’re going to start pushing it a little harder this week, but we’re still doing monthly print.” said Kelly.

Week two of the great wholesalers vs. publishers battle looks to have been more brutal than the first in terms of magazines not reaching outlets.

First-day sales of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue were down by double digits. Usually SI Group Editor Terry McDonell can count on selling 1.1 million copies of the issue, which is on sale for six weeks.

Meanwhile, sales of People were estimated to be down 25 percent or more.

However, this week, the sales slide appears to be easing, with only 10 percent to 15 percent of the market still without normal deliveries of magazines.

Source Interlink is said to be serving as many as 400 Wal-Mart stores that once were supplied by Anderson News, the wholesaler that pulled its trucks and stopped deliveries more than a week ago after it couldn’t get a 7-cent price hike from publishers.

The other big beneficiary has been News Group, owned by Canadian billionaire Jimmy Pattison, who co-owned warehouses with Anderson News under the Prologix name.

Late last week, News Group went to Delaware Chancery Court to free up product in Prologix warehouses on the East Coast, where it is the managing partner.

Many of the western states where Anderson was the managing partner in Prologix, are still without deliveries, sources said.

“It will probably be three to four months before we can assess the damage that has been done over the past three weeks,” said one industry executive.keith.kelly@nypost.com