Critics rough up
Tina's Newsweek redo
Their beefs: Lacks newsiness and timely insights
By Bill Cromwell
Mar 8, 2011
Whatever media critics were expecting from Tina Brown's Newsweek, she apparently didn't deliver.
Reviews for the magazine, whose much-anticipated redesign hit newsstands yesterday, are lukewarm at best and in a number of instances downright vindictive, though the latter probably say as much about people's opinions of Brown as they do about any actual shortcomings of the magazine.
Mostly critics are surprised at how very much like the old Newsweek that the new Newsweek turned out to be.
Though it has bigger pictures and new contributors, the essential DNA of Newsweek has not changed.
It feels a little stale, as one critic termed it, with too many stories lacking a real news angle or delivering any new insight.
Even the cover subject, Hillary Clinton, felt like she'd been pulled from the recycling bin, and critics immediately attacked the inclusion of an essay by Harvey Weinstein, who partnered with Brown's on the failed Talk magazine, as evidence of Brown's festering Hollywood obsession.
Still, even those who dismiss Brown's revamp of the newsweekly recognize her skills as an editor. It is not wise to underestimate Brown, who landed her first editor in chief job at age 25 and went from there to become the most talked-about editor in America, first for reviving Vanity Fair and then as the longtime editor of The New Yorker.
Further, the first issue of any magazine revamp will have its flaws, no matter who the editor is and how much planning went into it. The only difference here is that the editor is Brown and the magazine is Newsweek, which ensures the revamped title's every shortcoming, real or perceived, will get wide public airing.
What really matters is how Brown responds to the criticisms and how she puts the best of them to use in shaping the magazine over the coming months.
Here's a look at what bloggers and media critics were saying about Newsweek yesterday, along with what regular folks on Twitter had to say about the redesign:
Business Insider's Caroline Shin and Glynnis MacNicol
"Thus far, the general response is, shall we say, less than overwhelming. But it's early days and if there is one person in media it doesn't pay to underestimate Tina Brown."
TheWrap.com's Dylan Stableford
"Brown had been reportedly telling prospective advertisers that her 'Newsbeast' would be something like 'Vanity Fair meets the New Yorker.' Well, it doesn't look like Vanity Fair or the New Yorker. At a quick glance, the new Newsweek looks ... a lot like the old Newsweek. A political figure -- Hillary Clinton -- on the cover, and a coverline touting an article on 'political frenemies.'"
The Awl's Choire Siche
"Mmm, it's like soaking in a nice warm bath of a comfortable yesterday—a happy, mature place of sort-of kind-of powerful people (the kind of people who have 'power' at Michael's restaurant, or certain overpriced bistros in D.C.) explaining things simply and calmly (and sometimes correctly), with the occasional stroppy quote on the big proposition of last week."
Peter Feld, freelance writer/blogger
"Virtually nothing on this cover of Newsweek is pegged to this week’s news. This cover might work for a general interest monthly like VF or Talk, though it would need to be spiced up. Tina may think she’s doing something very different than Jon Meacham, the previous editor. But they both equally miss that evergreen topics, “deep think,” and access-driven (rather than news-driven) profiles are deadly for a newsweekly."
Joe Coscarelli, Village Voice
"But no one wants to talk too much about what's inside new Newsweek because, as we guessed, the hype was more fun than the actual magazine. 'Jokes about the waiting room at a doctor's office aside, when was the last time anyone cared about Newsweek in a serious, watch-their-every-move way?' we wondered last week ahead of the re-launch."
Mickey Kaus, The Daily Caller
"A piece from Harvey Weinstein, the mogul behind Talk, suggesting that Newsweek may wind up saying more about Tina’s relationships with various bigshots (Harvey, Hillary, the Hundred and Fifty) than about what’s happening in the world. (Maybe staffers could put out a second, riveting, magazine called ‘Why We Really Ran That Piece.’) The general impression: staleness, meaning a lack of both a) editorial imagination and b) news. Readers could be forgiven for checking for dust to make sure the magazine didn’t drop from the attic where they stored it around 1999. I had expected that some of the desperate hit-crazed undercurrent of the Daily Beast might carry over into Newsweek’s initial presentation. But desperation would be an improvement. Desperation is a form of vitality."
Tweets
@MrWriteNow: Newsweek is wasting away and Rolling Stone has Snooki on their cover. This really is the end of days.
@verslesud: Though I'm well sick of magazines being redesigned, I'm pretty okay with the newest new Newsweek.
@Ashbrookeross: First big notice on @Newsweek...cover bylines. Curious.
@tracysamantha: Could Newsweek turn into a woman's read? If Tina Brown's plan works, I say yes.
@josh_hawkins: Congrats to @Newsweek and @thedailybeast on the redesign. Love the focus on multi-media journalism. Looks great!
@weeks89: Kinda weird that everyone's talking about Newsweek, but not a word on the NYT magazine redesign.
@typographica: A look at Newsweek’s new interior offers more hope than what we see on the dreary cover:
@nbj914: Tina Brown introducing the new Newsweek. (I wonder if she even read the first cover story.)
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