Audio tycoon Sidney Harman, buys Newsweek

Newsweek Sold To Harman International. Newsweek gets you smarter, faster about what matters most now in politics, business, environment, tech, culture, world, and health ideas, news, and trends. Newsweek, the 77-year-old news magazine venerated the world over, has been sold by owner The Washington Post Co. to stereo magnate Sidney Harman, founder of Harman International Industries Inc. Harman has assured that most of the 350 Newsweek employees will be retained, while the weekly would be given enough time to recover from its losses. The Washington Post Co., announcing Monday that it had signed a contract with the audio tycoon, brought to an end the Post’s half-century-old ownership of Newsweek. Editor Jon Meacham has decided to leave the company and there is yet no decision as to who will succeed him. Until someone is hired, Tom Ascheim, Newsweek’s chief executive officer, will look after editorial responsibilities. In a statement, Harman called Newsweek “a national treasure,” while expressing his “enormous pleasure” at “succeeding The Washington Post Co. and the Graham family and looking forward to this great journalistic, business, and technological challenge.” Harman won the bid for Newsweek from among bidders such as Fred Drasner, ex-publisher of the New York Daily News; hedge fund Avenue Capital Group and OpenGate Capital, owners of TV Guide. Although terms of the deal were not disclosed immediately, it was reported that the Washington Post Co. was going to keep Newsweek’s pension assets, liabilities and some of the employee obligations. It was about 50 years ago that the Post bought the magazine, however dropping circulation figures forced the newspaper publisher to shed the magazine from its various publications. Circulation figures of Newsweek have declined from 3 million to 1.9 million in the past two decades. Moreover, the magazine could clearly be seen struggling against the onslaught of electronic and social media. Newsweek was founded in 1933 and has been suffering regular losses over the past few years. The magazine lost about $11 million during the first quarter of this year. According to newspaper reports, Harman is considering revamping the newsweekly and is expected to look at ideas such as including investigative as well as entrepreneurial journalism into the coverage areas of the magazine.