We hereby take this back, admit to being snowed.
This blog has been fairly relentless in predicting that Newsweek, America's Second Favorite News Weekly magazine would dry up and blow away without some billionaire coming to rescue it. When some billionaire (albeit one with no record in publishing) came to the venerable journal's rescue, Hil-Gle promptly admitted error and wished the stale old rag all the best. We here at Hil-Gle are PRO magazines, even bad scare pulps like Newsweek. We even welcomed Newsweek's evolution as a scare pulp, focusing our criticism only on its poor execution of this transition. (Ok, we also said that the editor of Newsweek was a weenie, but that's only because he is.) Once the torch had been passed, Hil-Gle laid in the weeds, giving the new regime time to mold its moribund product into a new whole. Pulp or not, any sort of change in Newsweek's direction was likely to be a positive one. BUT WE WILL HOLD OUR FIRE NO LONGER!
NEWSWEEK CLAIMED THAT IT HAD PUT ITSELF UP FOR AUCTION. That it had batted down offers from the likes of Conservative wind up toy Newsmax and from bottom dwellers such as the outfit which publishes the Enquirer. (To our knowledge, not a bidder.) It claimed that after a high and low search it had found a person with both the bucks and moral character it takes to continue the magazine in the style it has come to expect. After the dust settled, the magazine wound up being the only publishing holding of an inventor known for his commercial wizardry in the field of electronics. What an enlightened move, we thought. At last a good citizen, willing to respect those failing institutions of the printed word and back such up with moolah.
We were snowed.
As it turns out, Newsweek was never out at auction at all. In fact, in only the most literal sense was it sold at all. The final sale price was:
$1.00
Pardon me, but I think Newsmax has a dollar. Ditto the John Birch Society or whomever else may have actually been bidding. Even Hil-Gle has a dollar, although it does not have the capacity to print. Newsmax and other publishers had that sort of money and would have spent it, had they been invited to the auction. BUT IT SEEMS THEY NEVER WERE!
Moreover, Newsweek's previous owner (Kaplan), sweetened the deal by promising to eat its pension liabilities. That makes the costs really $1.00 plus the credit capacity for print and postage. Even in this environment, there would have been takers at any fair auction.
If Kaplan (a dubious for profit schooling concern) were a public company, there would certainly be an investigation as to its disposal of the Newsweek asset. As it stands, this appears to be a confidence game targeting an unwary, unworldly, wealthy person. The purpose, if there is one, is to milk his credit line while the magazine's staff continues on a course which has made it both a money loser and a laughing stock. HIL-GLE will stay on this story since it's possible there is more than meets the eyes with the entire recent turn of events at Kaplan.
We are watching you and we are disgusted. Repent!
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