Identity crisis: Even as late as April 2008, I sat in at a meeting with top brass where they claimed to still be committed to actual reporting. Reporting is/was/and always will be Newsweek's strength. Its biggest stories are rarely the blustery opinion pieces, but its scoops, exclusives, and thorough pieces of journalism/analysis. (Think of great and inspiring reporters like Mike Isikoff, Chris Dickey, Mike Hirsch, Mark Hosenball, or the expensively reported yet popular Newsweek election project, which comes out every four years.) But soon after that meeting, the dreaded Money Men came in, and as Newsweek "insiders" tell me, said that the reporting paradigm was a no go. (Never trust the Money Men! Really, what do they know about journalism? Aren't we supposed to be the experts on that?) In just a few months, the magazine went from a dedicated "mass and class" strategy to an "elite opinion" strategy. Newsweek then wanted "edgy" voices -- so the powers that be bragged about getting Christoper Hitchens to write for them . . . (Hitchens, no offense, was edgy in like 1993. )They tried a bunch of gimmick covers, overexposed guest essayists, and took on a sort of junior National Review editorial tone. (Why Dick Cheney Should Be President etc….)
This decision -- to basically abandon reporting -- I think sealed the magazine's fate. Maybe it was inevitable, maybe the Newsweek execs had no choice, but it suggested to me that the end was near.
-- Michael Hastings, "Newsweek: What Went Wrong" (The Hastings Report, True/Slant).