The End of Newsweek?
Newsweek
greeted the coming of Easter with a black cover, and the headline "The
Decline and Fall of Christian America," spelled out in red in the shape
of a cross. Inside, it was more declarative: "The End of Christian
America." Why? Because they found that the percentage of
self-identified Christians had fallen 10 points since 1990. Okay, then
let's compare. How much has Newsweek's circulation fallen since 1990?
Just since 2007, their announced circulation has dropped by 52 percent.
It would be more plausible to state "The End of Newsweek."
At the end of 2007, Newsweek
reduced its "base rate" (or circulation guaranteed to advertisers) from
3.1 million to 2.6 million, a 16 percent drop. At the end of 2008, the
Wall Street Journal reported that Newsweek, faced with an estimated 21
percent decline in ad pages, could soon drop that circulation number by
another 500,000 to 1 million readers. In February, the magazine
confirmed the million-issue drop, saying it would drop to a base of 1.9
million in July and 1.5 million readers by January 2010.
"Mass for us is a business
that doesn't work," Tom Ascheim, Newsweek's chief executive, told the
New York Times. "Wish it did, but it doesn't. We did it for a long
time, successfully, but we can't anymore." Now that U.S. News &
World Report waved a white flag and said it would only publish monthly,
the evidence is much stronger for wondering about the decline and fall
of the American "news magazine" - as if Time and Newsweek haven't
already shed that label in everything but name.
Newsweek's strategy in the
midst of all its financial decline is to double and triple the amount
of editorializing, cast aside all semblance of "news" in favor of long,
liberal essays by self-impressed Newsweek editor Jon Meacham and his
international editor Fareed Zakaria. Is that really a business
solution, or is it the captains performing violin solos on the deck of
the Titanic?
One has to wonder whether
Newsweek's financial gurus really think it's a smart business strategy
to greet the Easter season with funerals for "Christian America," and
greet the Christmas season by making the "religious case for gay
marriage"? (That's not to mention all the reverent Obama worship in
between.)
Christianity, in contrast to
Newsweek, is in decent demographic shape. The American Religious
Identification Survey that Newsweek touted - from Trinity College in
Connecticut - estimated there are now 173.4 million self-identified
Christians in America, up from 151.2 million in 1990. The percentage
declined, but the actual number increased.
The real bold-faced result in
the survey that spawned Newsweek's cover is the rise of what the
pollsters called the "nones," up from 14 million to 34 million. In a
typically ponderous essay, Newsweek editor Jon Meacham welcomed the
alleged decline and fall of "the modern religious right's notion of a
Christian America" because it creates a "calmer" political environment
and a more "theologically serious religious life."
Translation: the "culture
wars" should be declared over, and the left should be declared the
winner. The Christian right should slink back to its church buildings
and keep its antiquated notions of sin and salvation out of the public
square. "Calmer" Christians will seek a creed that chummily goes along
and gets along with the modern, secular culture. Only surrender on
social issues is "theologically serious."
Newsweek watchers might find
it odd that Christians should surrender, but Muslims should be granted
greater respect. A month ago, Newsweek's cover announced "Radical Islam
is a fact of life. How to live with it." Fareed Zakaria argued the
smart strategy was "nuanced, noncombative rhetoric" that avoids
sweeping declarations like "war on terror." Zakaria's piece ended right
in the secular liberal's sweet spot. He was confident radical Islamism
would eventually lose adherents, because "they lack answers to the
problems of the modern world. They do not have a world view that can
satisfy the aspirations of modern men and women. We do. That's the most
powerful weapon of all."
Modernity will win, and
archaic religion will lose. All this leads back to the sneaking
suspicion that the top minds at Newsweek think they are the wisest of
men, the definers of trends and the shepherds of public opinion. So why
is everyone abandoning their advice? Why are the captains of a magazine
that's lost half its circulation telling the rest of us where the
mainstream lies?
