Mediagazer: Seattle Times political ad campaign ‘absolutely takes the cake’ (Jim Romenesko)

6:55 PM ET, October 18, 2012

Top News:

A Turn of the Page for Newsweek — After 80 years in print, the newsmagazine adopts an all-digital format. — We are announcing this morning an important development at Newsweek and The Daily Beast. Newsweek will transition to an all-digital format in early 2013.

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David Carr / Media Decoder:

Newsweek to Cease Print Publication at End of Year — Newsweek, the weekly magazine that for decades summarized the news for households across the United States but struggled to maintain relevance in the Internet era, announced on Thursday that it would cease print publication at the end of the year.

Discussion: Free Press, paidContent, eMedia Vitals, Vanity Fair, Forbes, LA Observed and Radio & Television …

Felix Salmon:

Why keep Newsweek on life support? — It's hard to make money in journalism, and even harder to make money in print journalism. But here's what I don't understand: invariably, every time a print publication fails, it announces that it's not going to die, it's just going to “transition to an all-digital format”.

Discussion: Forbes, Corporate Intelligence, FishbowlNY, The Daily Caller and Gawker

Michael Learmonth / AdAge:

Newsweek CEO: Dumping Print ‘Liberates Us’ — Plans to Charge $24.99 For an Annual Digital-Only Subscription — There's been a deathwatch for the print edition of Newsweek ever since IAC CEO Barry Diller hinted in July that print would go away or be scaled back in 2013.

Kevin Lincoln / BuzzFeed:

Don't Blame Tina Brown — The demise of Newsweek's defining print magazine means the end of Tina Brown's desperate attempt to save the cover — not just of a print magazine, but really of anything at all — as a meaningful cultural force. Brown was the master of the form.

Discussion: The Huffington Post and BuzzFeed

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Amid ‘Newsweek’ funerary rites, two high-profile departures: Peter Boyer, Rebecca Dana — As news sinks in that Newsweek will soon cease to exist (as a printed object, at any rate, which in the U.S. is roughly the same thing), word is starting to leak out about high-profile personnel …

Discussion: The Huffington Post and Forbes

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:

Out Of The Ashes Of Dead Trees — The shift in my own mind has happened gradually. Even up to a year ago, I was still getting my New York Times every morning on paper, wrapped in blue plastic. Piles of them would sit in my blog-cave, read and half-read, skimmed, and noted.

Discussion: Adweek, Business Insider and The Week

Joseph B. White / Wall Street Journal:

Tina Brown: Time to “Embrace Our Future.” — The WSJ's Keach Hagey is back from an interview with Newsweek Daily Beast Editor-in-Chief Tina Brown and company CEO Baba Shetty, and has more on the decision to end Newsweek's print edition: — From Ms. Brown:

Discussion: Capital New York and Poynter

Dylan Byers / Politico:
Newsweek's Peter Boyer to join Fox News

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, The Wrap, TVNewser and @mikeallen

Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg / Wall Street Journal:

Amazon Struggles to Crack Publishing — Amazon.com Inc. has had lots of success in book retailing. But cracking the publishing business hasn't been as easy. — Take one of Amazon's biggest titles for fall, actress and director Penny Marshall's memoir “My Mother Was Nuts.”

Alistair Barr / Reuters:
Amazon makes big Kindle push in U.S. schools

Discussion: Fast Company, Amazon.com, 9to5Mac and WebProNews

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
comScore: Amazon Kindle Fire users read more newspapers and magazines than Apple iPad users

Discussion: comScore, Inc., CNET, iDownloadBlog.com and ZDNet

Alexander C. Kaufman / The Wrap:

Ted Turner: ‘CNN Fluffing Up News Coverage’ — Ted Turner, the founder of CNN, said Thursday that he'd like to see “less fluff” on his cable news channel. — Turner told Charlie Rose on “CBS This Morning” that CNN, which enhanced its reputation with its coverage of the Persian Gulf War in 1990 …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

AOL's Patch ‘in line to make a profit’ — AOL has said its US local news service, Patch, is on schedule to turn its first profit within the next 12 months, facing down critics who questioned its investment in the network. Tim Armstrong, the AOL chief executive, told the Dublin Web Summit …

Hamish McKenzie / PandoDaily:

Blogger turns to tips, briefly becomes “best-paid” journalist in his country — Last week, a friend of mine from Wellington, New Zealand, walked into what Americans would call a social security office, strolled up to a self-service kiosk, opened Microsoft Office, and accessed an enormous trove of private government data.

Discussion: The FJP

Jim Romenesko:

Seattle Times political ad campaign ‘absolutely takes the cake’ — The Seattle Times Co. announced on Wednesday that it's running — and paying for — ads in support of gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna. The newspaper company's filing with the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission puts …

Discussion: Seattle Times