As three of the nation’s largest newsweeklies have dwindled down to two, the remaining ones are finding themselves making drastic changes to maintain their existing audience. 

One may say that Time and Newsweek magazines are now smaller versions of their former selves.  This is largely due to consumers’ increasingly reliant attitudes toward news websites and cable channels for their current events and news updates.  Advertisers have become observant of this over time, which has forced both Time and Newsweek to cut out more than half of their ad pages and decrease their circulation numbers. 

Thus being said, Time magazine has put forth a valiant effort in saving not only its shelf-life, but the reputation it has with its audience.  Actions such as moving its delivery date from Friday to Monday, keeping its “Person of the Year” and “Time 100” issues in tact and, most importantly, building out its long-time brand digitally, have kept the 86-year old magazine a solid performer within its demographic.  “I think they’ve done the best job in making themselves a multimedia property,” said Peter Gardiner, Partner, Chief Media Officer, Deutsch.  “They’ve worked smartly at making themselves more than a print magazine.”

Time execs credit this to the theory that there is still a demand for a general news magazine, and that there is no need to recast the read to target a niche market.  While questions of how long newsweeklies can hang on amidst the ongoing pressures of ever-changing media outlets, Time has been successful in maintaining their upscale audience of 20.6 million subscribers. 

It appears that all news magazines should be following in these footsteps.  “Time versus Newsweek, they face the same handful of problems,” said Eric van den Heuvel, Director of Media Solutions at The Gate Worldwide agency.  “They’re just in different stages of addressing them.”