Media Agency Leaders Respond to Newsweek Decision

The decision by Newsweek to end its print edition on Dec. 31 and proceed as an online-only publication certainly got the attention of Madison Avenue, which has spent hundreds of millions of dollars through the decades to buy advertising pages in the magazine.

Here are reactions to the decisions from five senior executives at some leading media agencies:

Brenda White, senior vice president and publishing activation director at Starcom USA, part of the Starcom Media Vest Group division of the Publicis Groupe: “This was not a surprise in light of Newsweek's business challenges over the last several years. I am encouraged by their new digital strategy and look forward to hearing consumer reaction to the translation of the Newsweek brand.”

Barry Lowenthal, president at the Media Kitchen, part of the Maxxcom Global Media division of MDC Partners: “It was just a matter of time. But what IAC did was brave. Newsweek is a famous brand and IAC is a digital com pany that knows how to leverage digital brands. Newsweek probably has a better chance of succeeding at IAC as a digital-only play.”

“Print just doesn't matter. What matters is great content served over the right platform. For many of us, news belongs in the digital format. Hopefully Newsweek can flourish as a digital-only publication.”

George Janson, managing partner and director for print at GroupM, the WPP unit that oversees media agencies including MEC, MediaCom and Mindshare: “The jury is still out as to whether a pure digital play for the Newsweek brand is a sustainable business model. The site will need to have scale, a unique point of differentiation and exclusive, breaking news if it is to prosper. A huge issue is whether consumers will pay for a digital-only subscription to the Newsweek brand.”

“Also, is Barry Diller going to invest the resources needed to create a world-class news gathering organization to compete against some of the other global behemoths like Time, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, or is this a complete re-imagining of the Newsweek brand as we know it?”

“This does not portend the demise of print in the very short term. Newsweek has been struggling for the past several years. Obviously Diller took a long-term look at the future for Newsweek's print edition and didn't like what he saw.”

“There are a number of weekly magazines whose print products are faring better and who have created business models 'beyond the page' such as The Economist, Time and The New Yorker. Some of these long-established brands such as The New Yorker have had success in developing robust mobile and tablet platforms that are attracting younger people to their brands.”

Robin Steinberg, executive vice president and director for publishing investment and activation at MediaVest, part of the Starcom MediaVest Group division of the Publicis Groupe: “It's evident we've ex perienced a paradigm shift in how consumers engage and connect with content, and news content specifically.  As such, this is a progressive move for Newsweek as they transform their product and business model to support the multitude of devices and screens where consumers and advertisers invest plenty of time and money.”

Bryan Fuhr, senior vice president at Havas Digital North America, part of the Havas Media unit of Havas: “Newsweek was the first publication my parents gave me. The decision by Newsweek to cease printing is an occasion to reflect not only on changes in the way society gets its news, but also how advertisers and brands can continue to support the need for great commentary and analysis.”

“The work Daily Beast and Newsweek have done to lead the industry forward is very exciting. We are eager to see how the Newsweek brand continues to reshape itself.”

Friday Reading: Career Re-Entry for the At-Home Parent

A variety of consumer-focused articles appears daily in The New York Times and on our blogs. Each weekday morning, we gather them together here so you can quickly scan the news that could hit you in your wallet.

• U.S. court says marriage act unfair to gays. (National)
• Devilishly good Halloween outings. (In Transit)
• Delta expands service to Europe. (In Transit)
• Chemotherapy on the rocks. (Well)
• Career re-entry for the at-home parent. (Motherlode)
• Baby boomers and insomnia. (Booming)
• Can a back-up system have too many features? (Gadgetwise)
• More advice on home data storage. (Pogue's Posts)
• Newsweek will cease print publication. (Business)

NBC Pulls the Plug on \'Animal Practice\'

NBC announced Thursday that it was cancelling the new sitcom “Animal Practice” and replacing it on Wednesdays with the second-year sitcom “Whitney.”

Starting Nov. 11, “Whitney,” which stars stand-up comic Whitney Cummings, will take over the Wednesday at 8 time period that has been the home of “Animal Practice.”

That comedy, about a veterinarian with a monkey as an assistant, has performed poorly in the ratings since NBC gave it a plum spot at the end of the closing ceremonies of the Olympics (pre-empting a performance by The Who and some other singers in the process.)

Start Nears on Plan to Combat Online Infringement

Last year, five major Internet service providers and the big entertainment trade organizations announced a joint plan to fight illegal downloading through what might be called a strategy of annoyance. Instead of suing people suspected of copyright infringement, as the record labels have in the past, they would prod and poke people into good behavior through a “six strikes” system that escalate from friendly notices in their e-mail to, ultimately, throttled Internet access.

Progress has been slow on the project, called the Copyright Alert System, since it was announced 15 months ago. But in a blog post Thursday, the group created to carry out the process said it would finally begin “over the course of the next two months.” The post, by Jill Lesser, executive director of the new body, the Center for Copyright Information, reiterated major points of the plan and gave some new details.

If a copyright holder, like a record company or movie studio, makes a co mplaint about possible infringement, the suspected violator will be sent the first of these alerts, explaining the problem and asking the user to stop. If it happens again, the notices continue with more severity; alerts four and five require the user to acknowledge receipt of the warning. By strikes five and six, the I.S.P. can reduce a user's Internet speed.

Ms. Lesser said in her note that “contrary to many erroneous reports, this is not a ‘six strikes and you're out' system.” But in its initial announcement, the group said that I.S.P.'s might cancel a user's service if it determined that the company's terms of service had been violated.

The system will affect customers of five major Internet providers: AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Verizon. They, along with the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America, are financing the project.

The note on Thurs day also explained that a company called MarkMonitor would find infringement using “both trained professionals and automated processes to identify illegal downloading of whole movies, TV shows and musical recordings.” Users who believe they have been targeted in error can appeal to the American Arbitration Association for a fee of $35, which will be refunded if the user wins the appeal.

Ben Sisario writes about the music industry. Follow @sisario on Twitter.

Hollywood Still Awaits Coroner\'s Report on Tony Scott\'s Death

LOS ANGELES -There's still no sign of the Los Angeles County coroner's report that might shed some light on the story behind the film director Tony Scott's suicidal plunge from the Vincent Thomas Bridge here on Aug. 19.

The coroner's office initially said it would take weeks to compile a report that will include results of an autopsy performed on Mr. Scott's body. In fact, it has been 60 days, and counting. So far, that matches the 60 days it took the coroner to release a 42-page final report on the drowning-and-drugs death of Whitney Houston in February, though it is far short of the six months it took to compile a 51-page coroner's report on the death of Michael Jackson.

The investigation of Mr. Jackson's death, of course, was complicated by questions about criminal responsibility. Mr. Scott's case would hardly seem that complex. But it remains a mystery to many of those who knew, loved and worked with him.Earlier this week, Ed Winter, an assistant chief of t he coroner's office, said he did not know when the Scott investigation would be complete.

Paul Fichtenbaum Named as Time Inc. Sports Group Editor

Paul Fichtenbaum, who for eight years ran Sports Illustrated's Web site, was named the editor of the Time Inc. Sports Group on Thursday, replacing Terry McDonell.

Mr. Fichtenbaum's appointment comes a few months after the sports group, which also includes Golf Magazine and about two dozen other print, digital and mobile products, began to integrate the magazine and online properties. In the process, three employees were laid off and 16 accepted buyouts. In July, Mr. Fichtenbaum was named editorial director for the sports group.

“Everything going forward has to have a digital overlay to it because that's where the industry is going,” Mr. Fichtenbaum said in a telephone interview. “We have a really strong print product, a lot of subscribers - more than three million who love the magazine - and what we need to do is make sure they love SI in whatever form the world takes us. Our magazine is rock solid.”

Sports Illu strated has circulation of 3 million. In the third quarter of 2012, it had advertising revenue of $412.4 million, up 0.7 from last year, the Publishers Information Bureau said. ESPN the Magazine, which is published every two weeks, had the second-most ad revenue in the quarter, with $182.4 million, down 13.7 percent.

Mr. Fichtenbaum said that the print magazine would further extend its efforts in enterprise journalism, while letting SI.com handle daily sports news. “That's one of the things we can do to differentiate ourselves from our competitors,” he said. “The magazine can do those interesting, unique stories that are hard to come by.”

He added, “We have a different audience from ESPN the Magazine. We're on a different schedule. They're locked into the thematic approach.”

On the digital side, Sports Illustrated's Web sites had just over 10 million unique visitors in September compared with ESPN.com's 47 million, according to comScore.

M r. McDonell - who joined Sports Illustrated in 2002 after a diverse career as a top editor at Esquire, Rolling Stone, Outside, Men's Journal and Us - will be a senior advisor to Time Inc.

Breakfast Meeting: Bowing to Pressure, Newsweek Will End Print Edition

“It was a mistake to take this one on,” Barry Diller said Thursday. He was referring to the melding of Newsweek magazine with the Daily Beast Web site, an integration that by many accounts wasn't working (and Newsweek had some $40 million in losses to prove it). So Mr. Diller's IAC/InterActiveGroup bowed to the inevitable, Christine Haughney and David Carr write in The New York Times, and said it would cease Newsweek's print edition at the end of this year. It will live on in a digital edition, but the decision ends 80 years of print versions for Newsweek, which in headier times fought tooth and nail with Time magazine to be the standard bearer of news for the American reader.

The book by a former Goldman Sachs trader, Greg Smith, has been highly anticipated, in a nerve-racking kind of way, among those in the financial world, but bootleg copies that are circulating have eased some the concerns, Nelson D. Schwartz writes on DealBook. The book is said to have few n ew details of the “toxic” culture that Mr. Smith said prompted him to quit.

Dylan Byers on Politico reports on a controversy at The Seattle Times over the company's decision to sponsor an advertisement supporting a Republican candidate for governor. More than 100 staff members signed a letter of protest on Thursday that was delivered to the paper's publisher, saying the decision threatens “the two things we value the most, the traits that make The Seattle Times a strong brand: Our independence and credibility.”

President Obama appeared on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” on Thursday night and talked about the attacks in Libya, his debate performances, taxes and civil liberties. The Atlantic Wire has a rundown of the 15-minute interview. The president, meanwhile, appeared with Mitt Romney at the annual Al Smith charity dinner in New York, and as Richard A. Oppel Jr. reports in The Times, jokes about Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. were big winners.