Monday, February 1, 2010

Harper's Magazine: 1850-?

In a sound-bite age, a 160-year-old publication, specializing in long-form reporting and essays, struggles to keep an audience.
Link to February 1 New York Times article, "Editorial Shake-Up as Harper’s Tries to Stabilize in a Downturn".

Excerpt: In a rambling 40-minute monologue that left many attendees perplexed, Mr. MacArthur, 53, talked about the problems facing Harper’s: readership was down 35,000, newsstand sales were plummeting, the only direct-mail piece that seemed to work was 20 years old. Worse, Harper’s seemed irrelevant — “the mainstream media is ignoring it to death,” he said — according to people who were at the meeting.

No comments: