Washington Post Unloading Newsweek

Speaking of the Washington Post and a far left Internet presence, back in December, I asked, “Is Newsweek A Brand ‘That Will Disappear In 2010’?”

Today, Ken Shepherd of Newsbusters notes, “Washington Post Co. Seeking to Unload Money-losing Newsweek,” quoting this AP story:

The Washington Post Co. is putting Newsweek up for sale in hopes that another owner can figure out how to stem losses at the 77-year-old weekly magazine.While magazines in general have struggled with steep declines in advertising revenue because of the recession, news magazines such as Newsweek face the added pressures from up-to-the-second online news. Once handy digests of the week’s events, they have been assailed by competitors on the Web that pump out a constant stream of news and commentary.

Despite staff cuts, Newsweek has remained a drag on its parent company, which is also struggling with ad declines at its namesake newspaper.

Last night, while recording a podcast with Stephen Green (huh — never worked with that guy before…) and Jimmie Bise on Jimmie’s weekly show, I quoted James Lileks’ reminder that “joyless monomania” kills a blog, which was a reference to Andrew Sullivan’s blogging obsessions in 2004 and 2008. As Newsbusters’ Brent Baker notes, grinding down on a single theme to the exclusion of all others can also have a deleterious effect on old school-style periodicals as well.